Final Retaliation
by Reichenbach
Summary: Maraverse #23 -- NOW COMPLETE!! Mara's going after Luthor alone and Luthor throws down his trump card. Can the family get out of this mess?
1. Chapter 1

Usual disclaimers apply. Thanks to Brendan and Charlene for putting up with.  
  
Final Retaliation  
  
Part One  
  
**  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
The sidewalk glowed orange in the light of the street lamps. I concentrated intently on my target, the house at the end of the block. I arrived and took one last quick look around me. Trying not to notice the occupied vehicle half a block away, I rang the Grayson's door bell. Mara would kill me if she knew I'd ended up here, but I really had no other place to go. I knew she wouldn't listen to anyone. Perhaps if she couldn't be reasoned with, we could at least keep her from self-destructing.  
  
I stared up at the clear black sky. The humidity caught the city lights and it tinged a salmon color, but beyond it, the stars were still visible. Growing anxious, I rang the bell again. I would have used the 'other' entrance on the roof, but I didn't have the patience to evade the security up there, and I wasn't sure I could get in without alerting my friends in the car.  
  
Finally the door opened. "I got it, mom. Shut up already--" Jimmy's tired eyes set on me. "Oh, it's you. What the hell happened to your head? Anyway. Dude, I told you, I'm not."  
  
I pushed past him. "I need to talk to your parents."  
  
"And you couldn't come during the DAY?"  
  
"NOW, Jimmy." I pushed past him and came into the house. He stood in the doorway. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him through the door, then shut it.  
  
"What're your damage?" he asked me. I heard his father coming down the steps.  
  
"I told you before what my problem is. You don't want to help."  
  
"What's going on?" her father asked me, coming to the bottom of the stairs.  
  
"Mara's off the deep end. She's going after Luthor alone, and she no longer has any regard for her safety or his life."  
  
"Jimmy, go to your room," his father told him.  
  
"Hey, wait! She's my sister, and if you want in the cave, you need me--"  
  
His father glared at him. "Jimmy, get out of here. This doesn't involve you."  
  
Jimmy shook his head and marched to the steps. About half way up, he turned around. "Look, I'm so sick of everything being about her. SHE gets in trouble with the Joker. SHE loses her partner. SHE goes psycho. And you all keep cleaning up after her. We used to go AFTER nutcases like--"  
  
Before he could finish, I punched him in the jaw. His father grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.  
  
"Jimmy," he reiterated angrily. "Go the hell back to bed."  
  
"You're gonna let him hit me?" I could tell he wanted to hit me back.  
  
"We'll finish this conversation later," I ground out. "I'll even take the ring off when I kick your ass."  
  
Mr. Grayson pulled me away from his son again. "Jimmy, this is the last time I'm telling you to go to bed."  
  
"Its not fucking fair," Jimmy muttered, then took himself up the steps.  
  
We waited until we heard his door slam. "She's going to go after him and she's going to get herself killed."  
  
"I know. I know why."  
  
I nodded. "I'm sorry I've been avoiding you, but I don't know where else to go to now. I don't know that there's anyone else capable of stopping her."  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
~~Tim~~  
  
I rolled onto my back. I'd seen it coming. Why in the world had I let her hit me anyways? Not good, Drake. You're getting funny in the head again. Next thing you know, you're going to be drinking like a fish again.  
  
"You didn't have to flip me, just because I want you to keep an eye on Mara."  
  
"Yes I did."  
  
"You think I'm betraying you or something, because I'm suggesting it." I was beginning to catch on to that great mystery that was women.  
  
"YES." Cassandra stood over me, straddling me in the body suit part of her costume. I'd ceased being intimidated. For now I was just enjoying the view. I wouldn't enjoy it so much if she tried to hit me again, though.  
  
"Come here, for a second," I said, holding up a hand.  
  
"I'm HERE," she pointed out.  
  
I rolled my eyes. "I mean. down here. Don't make me get up." because I probably couldn't, right now.  
  
Cassandra sighed and flopped on the mat beside me. "And why am I NOT killing you?"  
  
"You need a reason to not kill me? Listen. I want to tell you something. You don't know this. I don't know this. so keep this to yourself." I made sure she was looking into my eyes. "Cass. Jordy's worried about her. She's flipping out. Luthor's last little stunt caused her to lose her baby."  
  
Cassandra's face hardened and she rolled away from me.  
  
"Cassandra!" I reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Look. I think we really have to put things behind us and try to help her. Jordan's right. If SOMEONE isn't looking out for her, she's going to get herself killed."  
  
"Not fair."  
  
I put an arm around her and pulled her a little closer to me. She was not escaping this conversation. I needed an answer from her. "What's not fair?" I hated when she got reticent and stopped speaking in complete sentences. She was quite mouthy and spoke her mind when it suited her. I supposed now was not the time.  
  
"Everything. Life. You take her side. And. that I can't be mad at her any more."  
  
"Well, not over this. She is. difficult. But Bruce was difficult."  
  
"Spent a lot of time mad at Bruce."  
  
I sighed, resting my head on her arm. "I know. Now just can't be one of those times. We gotta save one of our own."  
  
"No matter what she does, she's always going to be your little Robin, isn't she?"  
  
Deep down, yeah, she would be. No matter how mad I was at her. I didn't know how she saw me, but she was my little sister. "Look," I said finally. "I just know how I felt. Loosing someone. And I didn't always make the best choices, but you were there to drag me out of what I'd gotten myself into. I mean. I wouldn't be down here getting the tar kicked out of me every night, if you weren't such a persuasive person. You can be good for her too."  
  
"YOU be good for her." With that, she leapt to her feet and ducked into the tiny bathroom off the training room. So much for giving me an opportunity to protest.  
  
I rolled onto my back, waiting for her to finish. After all this. it was easy to forget that Mara had turned into a controlling uber-bitch. It was a lot easier to remember how playful she used to be. She'd jump on anything and anyone in sight, laughing as she did so. SHE had been why I'd come back into the game after I'd burned myself out. I wanted to have that same love for it as she did.  
  
Things had changed so much, and now we were at our current place. Gotham lacked defenders, where once they were plentiful. Those defenders lacked a common bond, where once their leader pulled them together. I was laying on the ceiling, staring at the cement block ceiling, wondering where all the time went. Wondering where the commonality went. where the direction and sense of purpose went. Bruce was the bond that had tied us together. Now we needed something else. Would being family be enough?  
  
* * *  
  
~~Dick~~  
  
I didn't like what I was hearing about my daughter's mental state. Not at all. I was glad someone was finally letting us in, but it seemed like a fruitless gesture at this late date.  
  
"I've tried feeding her information over the last two days," Barbara told us, "but she's completely restricted access to all of her machines. She won't accept ANY help."  
  
"I. I don't know what to do," Jordan admitted finally, staring at the kitchen table. It seemed like we always had the hard conversations at this thing. He rubbed the nasty welt she had given him, and then stared at the crusted blood on his finger tips.  
  
"We'll think of something," I reassured him. "It's what we do."  
  
There was a look of misery on Jordan's face. I didn't envy him. I knew he was going through something pretty damned awful just from what had happened. He didn't need what Mara was currently putting him through. And Mara? God. If I started thinking about it, and wallowing in it, I wouldn't be able to do anything. I had to just keep focused for now, and think up a plan.  
  
"Jimmy designed the system she's using in the cave. so. we may have to involve him," Jordan said with a tired, defeated sigh.  
  
"Jimmy has his own problems," I said darkly. That kid had done nothing but get himself in over his head since Bruce died. I had no idea what he was trying to prove. But, I had to concede; he was probably my best resource. The boy had been setting up force fields since the LAST time Mara taped him to the ceiling. He should know how to disable one. "Never mind. We'll talk to him in a little bit." I wondered if he could put aside his own issues with her and help. "I agree we have to get in there. Who knows what the hell plot she's hatching down there. But talking to her down there's like talking to a brick wall." That was something we all could attest to first hand.  
  
Barbara turned her attention back to the laptop that lived on the kitchen table. "Well, whatever we do, we'd better do it quick. She's blipped entirely off the map. Well, electronically. She's not doing anything via computer. Holy Hell. Only Bruce could be that stubborn."  
  
I squeezed her arm. Yes, we'd managed to conceive the only person in the entire world as stubborn and pigheaded as my father. "So we have to do whatever we're going to do? before she does what she's going to do," I added. "Great. This is what I love. When they work entirely in a vacuum," I said sarcastically. She knew how to not leave a paper trail for us to follow, which left us very, very little to go on.  
  
Jordan's head fell into his hands. "Its. why is she?" he took a deep shuddering breath. "Why? I mean? God. I just want to kill her sometimes."  
  
When he finally looked up at us, I could see the exhaustion in his eyes. He was a young man who had endured much. "Jordan, we're going to straighten this out."  
  
"Before or AFTER she gets herself killed? Look-she's sick. She isn't even working a full day because she can't stay awake. Her arm's broken in two places.and." he swallowed. "I'm afraid I'm not going to see her again."  
  
I nodded. "You'll see her again." When I got my hands on her. putting this boy through this. I knew she was likely dying inside right now, but pulling a Bruce wasn't going to help in the long run.  
  
"Even if she. you know. Doesn't want to see me again." Sometimes I wondered if she'd ever be aware of how much he loved her. No father could possibly complain with the amount of devotion he'd shown. He put up with everything she put him through, didn't he?  
  
"You'll see her again," I told him firmly. Neither of us was getting anywhere wallowing. "There is no other acceptable alternative." I looked to Barbara. "I say we involve the Titans. The more people we have looking for her and trying to stop her, the better odds we have. Just Say No to the Justice League." Which was going to be hard, since we were both members, but their current Anti-Robin policy was NOT going to get the job done. "We can work on anticipating her movements, Jimmy can work on penetrating her lair. Then if we can't get hold of her directly, we'll at least have access to her supplies and her records."  
  
Barb gave me half a smile. "On it, Boss."  
  
"Don't call me that," I told her with half an ounce of humor to cut through the angst.  
  
"Ok, Short Pants."  
  
I sighed. "Better. Much better." I tapped my finger on the table, trying to think, based on the information Jordan had given us, what her next move would be. We could look for more illegal operations, but I had a feeling that wouldn't be her focus. She wanted the head of the Snake.  
  
I noticed Jordan was looking at me, hopefully. It was the first time I'd seen any light in his eyes. "Listen to me. We're going to get a handle on this, and on her. And then once we've done that, then Luthor can kiss his ass goodbye." You didn't hurt my kids and walk away. Clark was the uncle I never had, but this was being taken care of in Bat-style.  
  
"Looking for anything tying him to Mara's 'accident' is going to prove fruitless," the love of my life reiterated. "My father and Jimmy found about all there was to find. We need to find some other way to legitimize anything we do to him as well." She was typing again.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Tim~~  
  
I came back to my loft shaking my head. Cassandra was such a. female sometimes. She was cunning and almost ruthless out in the field. But when she was at 'home', she was like any other woman. She was impossible to read, difficult to understand, fussy, and frequently disappeared when I asked her to do something particularly distasteful. She never came out of the bathroom, but her cowl and belt had disappeared.  
  
Changing shoulders with my bag, I dug into my pocket for my keys. I supposed that by the fact she hadn't stayed to face me, that meant that she was going to do as I'd requested. Was there a reason I'd become part of the most emotionally challenged clan of cape-and-mask types on the face of the earth?  
  
There was a man sitting in that car parked on the corner. Well, a person. Let's be politically correct and not say it's a guy till you know for certain. Unlike Mara, with whom everyone is male until proven otherwise. Anyways, there wasn't much around here. It was sitting just beyond the light from the convenience store. I should probably watch, incase they were going to knock the place over. I wouldn't get involved directly, but I did happen to have emergency services as number one on my speed dial. I knew too many people who required backup too often.  
  
Taking my time, and keeping my attention focused around me, I found the right key and began placing it in the lock. As I did so, I noticed that there was damage to the lock, and to the metal door that hadn't been there when I'd left this evening. I swallowed, growing very, very worried.  
  
Suddenly, I felt a presence behind me. He felt at least my height. Ever so slowly, I turned. "I'm not looking for trouble."  
  
He was, though. He had a gun leveled at my chest. The hammer had been pulled back. That meant he anticipated pulling the trigger before he had even come up behind me. Keeping my eyes on the gun like a good little victim, I was aware of his black head-to-toe clothes, and the ski mask. He must have been hot on this August evening.  
  
"Give me your--"  
  
Before he could say another word, I took him down. I had no qualm about leaping at him and taking the gun-he had every intention of killing me, then probably making it look like a robbery. I was not leaving my child an orphan. I realized as I disabled him and secured him with the strap of my bag that I was quicker now than I'd been before. There was something to training with Cassandra.  
  
As soon as I was sure he wasn't going anywhere, I bolted for the door. Without even making it to the elevator, I saw that it was disabled. That wasn't good. Flying up the flights and flights of steps, I made it to my floor. My door was already opened. I could hear my step mother's muffled moans and Sammy's frightened shriek. I had no idea how long whoever was in there had been in there, but I was pretty sure there was only one of them. The way the door had been ripped out of its hinges, I was pretty sure I only had one person to deal with.  
  
Slowing down, I entered my flat. There was stuff everywhere. All the cables were ripped out of my computer, and the tower was on it's side, presumably ready for transport. The only two plants I owned were on the floor, their pots crushed. The dishes we'd washed together were smashed on the kitchen floor. Big ol' robbery attempt gone wrong was how this was supposed to look, I was sure of it.  
  
The sounds of struggle were coming from Sammy's room. I made my way there past the wreckage which was once my moderately tidy home, and into the doorway. Whoever he was, he was dressed the same as my other 'friend', and he was searching for something. It wasn't Dana, she was on the floor with a big bloody welt on her forehead-it must have been Sammy.  
  
I took one step into the room, and he felt me. As he turned, I did what Cassandra had done to me earlier in the evening. I grabbed him by his shirt and sent him head-first into the floor. He hit with a thud on the hard wood, but he wasn't unconscious. The bugger tried to roll over, reaching for his gun and grab my leg. The other came down on his head, HARD. When I was sure he wasn't going to move, I secured him as well.  
  
That being done, I started looking around Sammy's room. The stuffed animals on her desk had exploded, apparently the victims of gunfire. He'd done that to frighten her. I kicked his unconscious form. "Sammy, honey. It's daddy. Where're you at?"  
  
Suddenly, the unaffected mountain of toys in the corner near her bed erupted, and her tangled brown hair shot through, followed by her bloody, tears stained face. Without thinking, I picked her up and looked her over. Whoever he was, he'd hit her. Her face was purple and there was a cut above her eyebrow. I hugged her fiercely to me, promising that everything would be alright now. Grabbing my phone out of my pocket, I hit number two on my memory dial.  
  
As I knelt beside Dana, I shoved the phone under my shoulder and clutched on to my crying, bleeding child with one arm and checked my step mother's pulse with the other. She was just unconscious, thank God. The phone rang twice, then picked up.  
  
"Busy, Tim." There was the sound of Cassandra inflicting considerable violence on the other end.  
  
I adjusted my daughter's weight on my shoulder. "Get to my house now," I said, my voice trembling. "Someone just tried to kill Samantha." Luthor was now my pet-project as well.  
  
Suddenly there was silence. "Coming." The line went dead.  
  
What happened next was a blur. It was a slow-moving blur, like watching Bart in a slow-motion video. Vaguely I remembered the same sick feeling from when Stephanie had died-the incident and the subsequent clean up. Rocking my sobbing daughter, I looked at the row of destroyed toys in front of me. They were all from that cartoon show that Mara had been so infatuated with in school. In my distant memory, I remembered sitting on the sofa with her when she was little, when she'd return from patrol with Bruce. I'd sit there with my arm around her, the way I sat with Sammy after school. It hadn't been a simpler time, but it had been a more innocent one.  
  
Samantha cried herself to sleep in my arms, and Dana didn't wake. That let me do what I needed to do. I replaced my bonds on these guys with official Bat-issue restraints, opened a few windows and then called the cops. I was now another hapless victim that had walked into the situation, but it had been The Bat who had taken these guys down. I had a feeling that if these guys woke up remembering anything, they wouldn't admit it had been me.  
  
Cassandra arrived as they were loading Dana into an ambulance. They also wanted to check over Sammy to make sure she was physically alright, but I had a feeling she was fine. Still. let's play the game. Besides-the more public we were, the harder it would be for a second attack.  
  
Cass was wearing the body suit part of her uniform with a long black sweater over top. I wondered if she ever washed that thing-she seemed to always throw it on whenever she needed to change quickly. Then she just looked quite. well, dangerous. In a leather pants, big boots kind of way.  
  
The entire time we were sitting in the curtained off room in the emergency room with Samantha, Cassandra kept her arms folded over her chest and her dark, rosy lips pressed firmly together. I could tell that she was trying to keep from saying something. It looked as though she'd gotten back her tongue and was now trying to swallow it.  
  
"What?" I asked finally, rubbing Sammy's tender shoulder. She lay on her side, sucking her thumb, enduring all of the things the police and hospital staff inflicted on her. I hadn't wanted this for Sammy. I wanted a safe, uncomplicated life.  
  
"I don't like. just sitting. You know that."  
  
"I know." She didn't like what I was going to ask of her when this was all over.  
  
"I don't like. tonight. Tonight's a bad night."  
  
"Yeah, you could say that," I answered sarcastically.  
  
"Mara's not in the cave. She said if I want the city, I can have the city." That was not good. She wasn't planning on coming back.  
  
"Shit," I muttered, drawing in a deep breath, trying to gather my thoughts. The world had spun so far out of control in the last twenty-four hours.  
  
Before we could discuss it more-the curtain pealed back and the doctor entered. No. I couldn't finish this conversation now. For the time being, I had a part to play. The other rolls in my life. would be picked up again momentarily.  
  
As I suspected, when Dana woke and talked to the police, she didn't remember anything at all. She'd been knocked out before anything else had happened. It wasn't Dana they wanted-it was Sammy. Mara's little mascot and former ice-cream buddy, adopted niece and current holder of ALL of Mara's Shatzi toy paraphernalia.  
  
Sammy said that when the man came in, she'd ran and hid with her toys. She hadn't seen Dana get hurt, or my little maneuver. We lived in a precinct on what had been Batman's regular patrol rout, so it wasn't any big deal when I started spouting about a large bat swooping in like lightening, and leaving before I could think or blink or move. Cassandra appeared to be enjoying the performance.  
  
Finally, an acceptable opening appeared. "Cassandra, stay with Sammy. Make sure my dad gets Dana home alright."  
  
Her warm brown eyes narrowed. "What?" She seemed supremely agitated, and I did briefly fear that I'd get punched.  
  
"I am going after these guys."  
  
"Crack monkey."  
  
"Cassandra, YOU can protect her. Maybe even better than I can."  
  
"And you?"  
  
I rose to leave. "I dropped the ball," I confessed. "Now I'm going to pick it back up again. For Mara, and for Sammy." She stepped out of my way and let me pass.  
  
And in the mean time, Luthor better hope to God he doesn't cross my path.  
  
  
  
Continued in Part Two 


	2. Chapter 2

Final Retaliation  
  
   
  
Part Two of Five.  
  
**  
  
~~Mara~~  
  
I remember everything he's ever said to me. That. if even one innocent dies, we've not done our job. Putting down one's life for another is the noblest sacrifice of all. We're judged by everything we do. We're remembered by our last act.  
  
I checked the force field again. Tomorrow they could come to this place. Not tonight. When I was done, I sat in the chair. His chair. My chair. My shoulders came to rest on my knees, and my chin rested in my hand.  
  
I remember his last act. I remember the intense momentum as he hurled himself through the humid, thick air. "You know what to do." Those were his last words to me. I think about them often. I try to go on as he would. I have failed him in a lot of ways.  
  
SHE came tonight. She was trying to be my friend, but I know better. Tim has always had a pathetic soft spot for me, and he's pushed it onto others. Weakness is why he left the game.  
  
I gave Cassandra what she wanted. The city is hers. I will have no use for it where I am going.  
  
You control your own destiny, he told me.  
  
It's important to know how to make an entrance.  
  
Never overstay a welcome.  
  
Ever so slowly, my eyes rose to the glass case. The white light of the hydrogen lamp reflected off the black material like stars in my night. As a child the suit seemed larger than he was. He'd stand there before me, in all but the cowl. He'd stare for a moment, as if waiting for something from me, then would place the mask over his face. Then-any talking that might have been burned away like fog in the morning light.  
  
We never spoke. Not in later years-we didn't need to. In my youth I would give him the occasional ribbing-wanting to change the colors of my costume, wanting to drive the car, mailing my brother to foreign countries. In all of his generosity, he let me. He'd tell me no and no again, each time in that same dry voice.  
  
Where was he now, to tell me No?   
  
Where was the order he brought to my life?  
  
"I've made so many mistakes," I apologized to Him for the hundredth time that day. "You always forgave." Perhaps it wasn't forgiveness. But he always forgot.  
  
"ALWAYS accept responsibility for your actions," He said to me, pacing back and forth. "Do NOT blame others for your failings, misdeeds or misjudgments. I do NOT want to hear of you blaming anyone else in your family for something you've decided. Am I clear?"  
  
My nine year old head bobbed up and down vigorously, anxious to get back into his good graces. How easy it was then. "I'll be good!"  
  
"Good."  
  
He sat down beside me, in the very chair I now occupied. He glanced at me once, and did not say another word. I felt full. Complete.  
  
Thinking back, many of the things I'd done in my youth were simply so he'd reprimand me. Did I think nothing would happen, if I skipped out on the seventh grade field trip half way through to go bother him at Wayne Towers? Or that nothing at all would happen, were I to take The Car for a spur of the moment joy ride.  
  
His presence-his attention had always been enough.  
  
"All of our actions have consequences." This was to be another 'life lesson' moment.   
  
I nodded, standing on the ledge of the building. Staring into the alley, then to the street below, I saw him laying there, a bag at his side, it's contents spread around him as if they'd exploded out of the bag. Looking at the dead boy. It had been a B and E, and he'd fallen to his death before we'd even arrived.    
  
"Some of them we can foresee; others we can not." He turned, his cape twisting and swirling behind him as he did so, then vanished off the other side of the roof. There was nothing else we could do here.  
  
I had not foreseen these consequences. I'd not anticipated.  
  
The heat left me parched and not thinking clearly. All I knew was that my belt was damaged and I was growing impatient.   
  
The metal door burst opened, practically melting from the heat of the fire outside, and the explosives He had used to blow it open. I'd been sure I was going to die. God didn't intend me to make it to tomorrow-the first day of high school.  
  
   
  
"Robin, we have about two minutes to get off the ship." seeing that I had been injured, he hauled me to my feet and practically dragged me upward. I'd not been able to get myself out of the sealed-off room. My leg and side had been damaged, as well as my belt and the contents within. I only had half a cape left.    
  
When we were nearly to the deck of the ship, there was another explosion. He seemed to have some sort of psychic knowledge that it was coming, and threw his cape over me, launching us backward, slightly ahead of the blast. I woke a short time later in a small boat that I hadn't remembered being on the ship, nor had we brought it with us.    
  
I tried to sit up. "Where? How?" With no effort at all, he pushed me back down. Great. I'd singed my hair off, I realized, touching the side of my head. That would really make me a winner on the first day of school.    
  
"ALWAYS anticipate your opponent's next move, Robin. THAT is how you ended up in that room. And ALWAYS be prepared-for anything."    
  
It had been a variable I'd not anticipated. Neither Luthor's boldness in wishing to get rid of me directly, or my own. the consequences of. that I could be.    
  
The pain of not knowing what you've lost, until you've lost it. Of thinking of what tomorrow might have been, and knowing it won't be so.    
  
"LEARN from past mistakes," he told me as he pinned me to the mat in the gym. "But do not dwell on them. You thought too much of our last round, and it distracted you."    
  
Slowly I got up, brushing off my knees. "Think about it, but don't think about it?"  
  
"Think, process, move on."    
  
Could I ever move on? Was such a thing possible? A time when I no longer felt like this seemed incomprehensible. There was only one thing to end the stabbing, burning pain, and it would end Luthor's as well. Of course, I wondered if the soulless could be made to feel pain.    
  
I supposed soon I'd know the answer. I'd know the answer to many things. Like if his blood ran black through his veins.   
  
I came into the cave, my sweater thrown over my folded arms and my backpack full of books tugging my shoulders ever downward. The Business Law book alone could sink a ship.  
  
As he spoke, he never looked up from the computer. "I've already recommended to your father that Jordan's request for membership in the Titans be turned down."  
  
"It's because he's green, isn't it?" Flippancy before dinner usually wasn't accepted.  
  
Tonight it was entirely ignored. "Mixing work with. other things seldom works out."    
  
I threw my bag onto my chair, trying not to be hurt by the reality of what he'd just said. "I'll remember that," I answered playfully.   
  
"Oracle is right-it will impair your judgment. And that is not fair to him."    
  
It hadn't been fair to him. I hadn't been fair to him. I'd taken something away from him-something I knew he wanted. I'd taken away the future by my inability to anticipate. By my inability to see the path I had been on. I could make it right for him. I could try.    
  
Sometimes, a best effort was all you had left.   
  
He stared down at the dead man's carcass, which lay on the living room couch of the apartment. The missing part of his face was pressed against the once-white fabric. I looked over Batman's shoulder at the suicide note, and list of transgressions-mostly infidelity-that were the cause of the oversized baker's killing himself.  
  
"There is little in the world that is entirely unforgivable. There is little in the world that is entirely forgettable."    
  
My crime may be forgiven-it was Jordan's nature to do so. That was what made me feel so deeply for him-his good heart. Whereas, I probably had none. It was good that one of us did. Unfortunately, he didn't deserve the pain that having one brought.    
  
My failing would not be forgotten. There were some things that only blood could wash off the face of the earth. I was coming to see that now.    
  
* * *  
  
~~Dick~~  
  
My wife shook her head. "Thanks, Dad." Barbara hung up the phone next to her computer, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  
  
"I'm going to kill every single one of them, when I get my hands on them."  
  
 "What now?"  
  
 "Dad's been cruising the police scanners again. Tim's loft was broken into tonight. Sammy's still at the emergency room, and Dana just left from there. Dad's with Cassandra."    
  
"And Tim?" I asked.    
  
"GONE. All he said to Cassandra was that he was going to 'take care of it'. And she let him go. I could kill her too." Barbara rubbed her tired eyes. She'd been up since noon, trying to give Jimmy and Kristin 'helpful tips' (read obsessive-compulsive controlling advice) on planning their wedding. We all needed a nap.    
  
"Damnit," I muttered, drinking the rest of the cold coffee in my mug.    
  
She shook her head. I didn't want to be Tim when this was all over.   
  
"I have the older Titans on stand-by, ready to stop her as soon as she pops up. And Balius. I think that idiot is still in love with her." He wasn't my first choice for a son-in-law, but quite frankly, we needed all the hands we could get at this point. If he was only doing it because he was in love with her, I'd take that as well. The other younger Titans had no business in it, and were not, as of yet, involved. "Kyle is looking for Luthor, since that is where she's likely to be. Jordy collapsed at the kitchen table while I was talking to Superboy. He's going to watch Metropolis. Not that we'll be saved from the Big Guy. I expect him here at dawn, ranting and raving a blue streak. We gotta make this quick, hon. The Justice League is going to tear us a new one." I wondered if she knew how many people were working for her? I wondered if it would matter.   
  
"So what's new," she muttered. "Hope you weren't planning on getting a pension from them."    
  
"I wasn't staking my entire retirement on the Justice League," I informed her. "While I'm waiting for Wonder Woman's blood pressure to go down, I'm going to talk to Jimmy."    
  
"Good. My father's going to meet him at the Manor as soon as he can get there."    
  
I nodded. "Get Kristen to make herself useful up here by feeding you doughnuts and coffee or something. This is gonna be a long one."   
  
"I'm fine. I don't need her puking on my equipment."    
  
Sighing, I affectionately kissed her head. She'd never admit it, but she was dying her hair. God, I loved this woman. We'd kept the world from falling apart a thousand times by now. Lets see if we could keep our family together.  
  
Leaving my wife, I went to the boy's door. We were going to give him his own space with Kristen, if we could ever get the world to stop ending long enough to build the damned thing. She was a nice kid. Her 'moms' were living in some other version of reality than the rest of us, but she was a nice kid. Jimmy had the worst timing in the universe.    
  
I knocked. "Jimmy!"    
  
"What'd I do now?" he asked, sleepily.  
  
"Get your butt out here, boy."    
  
I can't believe he'd made me a grandfather. Roy's first reaction had been 'dude, now you're old, and I'm not!' and I had to concur.    
  
And Mara. Well, she and Jimmy had always been in competition, hadn't they? That was a flippant way of putting it, but that was about the short of it. If one of them is going to do something stupid, the other one might as well too. Only this time. the repercussions had been far-reaching.    
  
"Jimmy, open the damned door."    
  
Finally, the door opened. "Yer gonna wake Crys."    
  
"Come down stairs. We have something to discuss."    
  
He stepped out into the hall and closed the door. "If this is about helping psycho-sis, I already said that I'm not going to Gotham until morning."  
  
"You'll do as I say. Your grandfather's going to meet you at the Manor in." I looked at my watch. "An hour and forty-five. I want that damned force field down. If she's there, I want you to keep her there. If she's not, I want you to go through ALL of her files and find out what the hell she's doing."    
  
"Da-ad! If we keep cleaning up after her, she's going to just keep--"  
  
"Jimmy, if we don't clean up after her this time, there isn't going to be anything left to clean up. She's planning on taking Luthor out, and she doesn't care if she goes along with him." I grabbed his shoulders. "That accident caused her to. miscarry. She's not taking it lightly.   
  
"What the hell? Come on dad, you're making that up. She'd never--" I stared at him with intent seriousness. "Shit. Ok. Fine. I do this. But under one condition."  
  
"WHAT?" I asked harshly.  
  
"That girl gets some serious therapy and drugs when this is over."  
  
"Fine." I didn't know if I had a right to promise that, but I'd promise him just about anything at this point.    
  
He grabbed a pair of sweat pants off of the dryer and started getting dressed. "So. uh. I was thinking. Mom wants doves. But like. what if they crap on the ice sculpture?"  
  
"I thought this was a SMALL wedding. A 'please don't notice that my girlfriend is four months pregnant' wedding. Why do you need doves or an ice sculpture for that?" I loved him, but sometimes, I wanted to kill him.    
  
"Well, mom said." He started digging through his tools. Half of them couldn't even be found on the market. They were either from STAR or his own design. That happened when your hobby was tinkering with alien technology. "YOU want us to elope," he said finally.    
  
"Did I say elope?"    
  
"You don't want doves."    
  
I rubbed my eyes. "Fine, have doves. But don't complain to me when they shit on your ice sculpture." I walked away.    
  
"Hey! Dad! Wait!" he came chasing after me.    
  
"WHAT, Jimmy?"    
  
"Sorry, dad. Just. trying to cheer ya up."    
  
My next question was terribly snippety. "Why isn't Alfred planning this?" It's a question I'd asked myself dozens of times by now. Alfred was usually on top of everything.    
  
"He said we should do this on our own. Learning experience type thing."  
  
"Lord help us." I needed to put on another pot of coffee, then get out there with the Titans. "Look, don't keep your grandfather waiting."  
  
He gave me a wave and dashed out the door, his backpack full of equipment in hand. I'd have to concede that he'd grown up. My wise-cracking sidekick was going to be a dad. Not under the most ideal circumstances, but still.    
  
I waited for the coffee to brew, then poured the whole pot into a thermos. "Barb!" I called up the steps. "I'm outta here, hon. Keep me posted!"    
  
I went out the front door to take the car. The house had been watched since the day before yesterday and Jimmy had reported being followed on his errands around town yesterday. Thus the 'roof entrance' was temporarily not in use. I'd lose my tail and be on my way.  
  
As I made my way north, I thought about what a big mess this family had become. We'd never been the most wholesome folks on the block, but we were a solid unit. We worked well together. We had a common goal. Now? Now I didn't know what we were, or why. I wondered if any of us realized what a solidifying force Bruce was, until he was gone.  
  
I wondered if he knew what he was to this family-or to Mara. He really was more than just her partner. I used to even envy how their partnership had never had the snags that there'd been with me or with Tim. I cursed myself that she'd become so much like him, and that I'd let it. I cursed myself especially at times like this, when it got her into trouble.    
  
The truth was, though, I didn't know that I could keep them apart.    
  
At the age of three, Mara discovered that butter knives made acceptable screw drivers. My kitchen table almost collapsed on her head four times that summer. I spent a good amount of time searching for the cover plates to all of my outlets within her reach, and she figured out how to pick a lock (everyone swears on a stack of Bibles that no one taught her). Bruce was the only one who could keep her occupied. He'd give her puzzles, teacher her how to BUILD things with those evil little hands of hers, and got her using her head. Barb and I were thankful: if she was doing that, she wasn't destroying our house.  
  
He wasn't demonstratively affectionate towards her, and she wasn't towards him. Even then it seemed like the perfect 'working' relationship. I'd always felt bad that they weren't affectionate towards each other. I'd even argued with Bruce about it once, blaming him entirely. I thought that if he'd take some initiative, she'd respond. I mean, she wasn't exactly shy with the rest of us. I'd even accused him of treating her like one of his 'little birds'. She was family, damnit.  
  
When she was five, she told me with quiet confidence that she was going to be Robin soon. I asked her if she'd bothered to check with Tim about that change in plans-but in reality I didn't even want to be thinking about that stuff with her until she was like TWELVE. She explained that Timmy was getting too old, and she was studying all of grandpa's books, reading old files, looking up words she didn't know. so there. I regretted teaching her how to read.  
  
I never understood that whatever was going on with them-it was beyond words. I'd seen them work. Speech wasn't necessary. And when she was with the Titans, I sensed her frustration that communication wasn't as intuitive with us. We actually had to open our mouths.  
  
I'd never seen him give her any praise, but I knew she felt the most appreciated and understood by him. Now He was gone, and half of her was missing-then Luthor had to go taking more pieces of her away. I wanted to kill her sometimes-but I did understand her. More than she gave me credit for.  
  
It was a little while later that I met up with Roy. Donna was at the tower, searching for any sign of Mara on our monitors. Gill Head and Balius were in charge of keeping the Justice League at bay. I didn't need anyone messing this mission up. And when in trouble with the whole damned League, who better to send than the son of two league members and the one adult Titan who wasn't in trouble with them all yet.  
  
"Nothing yet," he told me as I approached his position on a New York roof top. There was a rumor that Luthor was supposed to make an appearance in the financial district this afternoon. As far as we knew, Kyle was trying to find Luthor's current location, which wasn't easy even with Babs working on it. His last known location was Metropolis, but that was last night. He could be anywhere by now.    
  
I despised that I was working to save that man.  
  
"I think we can give up on the roof tops," I told him. "She isn't going to wait that long for whatever she does. She's also not going to do it in the open where we can stop her."  
  
"I blame your excellent training and leadership skills," Roy said flippantly.  
  
I made a face. "Roy, don't start with me. I'm under enough pressure."  
  
"Come on. I'm just trying to. lighten things up."  
  
"Well, stop it," I grumbled.    
  
"Fine," he returned. "Dick. I'm sorry, man."  
  
Shaking my tired head, I stared at the rising sun. "We've just gotta keep her from killing or otherwise maiming him. After that. well, then we can talk about the rest of it. I mean. I don't want to think about it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"That she's my kid."  
  
"WHAT?"    
  
"That I have to take down my own kid. Even if it's to keep her from hurting herself, or doing something she'll regret. Not when. Well. She's entitled to her grief and rage." Not when I wanted to turn that piece of shit into a bloody pulp.  
  
Roy didn't have anything to say to that. I didn't think there really was any thing he could say. His daughter was perfectly stable, upstanding member of society and could only be faulted for her questionable taste in men (she'd once gone through two speedsters in two years). It was just me who had such a. damaged child.  
  
"Yeah," he answered finally.  
  
For a moment, we remained in companionable silence. We were sort of at a stand still until she decided to make a move, or until Jimmy got into the cave and we found out what her plans were. I'd give her credit. She had covered her tracks well and was making this damned-near impossible for us.  
  
"Nightwing." it was Babs.  
  
"Huh?" I said, turning my head away from Roy. That was secret code for 'I have someone in my ear.'  
  
"You're never going to guess what happened?" There was something smug in her voice.  
  
I hit the edge of the roof hard. Either I was getting old, or I was distracted. "You found Mara, and she's willing to accept help?" A guy could hope.  
  
"Tim got names on the two guys who broke into his place. Dad says they were feeding the cops this line about breaking in. Tim traced 'em back to the mob."  
  
"Ohkay." this was getting interesting. Could we be on the verge of having a paper trail? I was cautiously optimistic.  
  
"So. Following the money." she said teasingly.  
  
"Lemme guess, some Luthor subsidiary that isn't really a subsidiary."  
  
"Bingo. And get this," she added. "The one she and Jordy blew up yesterday in Metropolis." Superman really hadn't been too happy about that, as I recalled. The icy phone message had been my first tip-off that he wasn't a happy camper.  
  
"That's sloppy for Luthor."  
  
"Shit," she muttered. There was a lot of typing, and a few muttered curses under her breath. "You're right about it being sloppy. I think I found a reason. The bank rolls for that dummy corp. It just blipped off the map."  
  
"It's a setup. Roy, you know what to do," I told my friend. "Do whatever it takes to keep her from getting herself killed." I threw out a jump line. I had to get back to Bludhaven, they were all in danger.  
  
"Can I have a location on Sammy?" The poor kid was barely five. She didn't need to be caught up in this. The sooner she was hidden away and safe, the better.  
  
"Last I heard, with Cassandra. They were going to her hidey-hole." Which was two stories below ground and probably a good place for them. I didn't understand why Cassandra was suddenly going domestic and protecting Sammy while Tim did detective work. It seemed like things changed so quickly around here.   
  
"Where's Tim?" I asked, trying to get to transportation as fast as humanly possible.  
  
"He said he was going to 'take care' of things on his end, then went incommunicado. Is it just me, or does he sound awfully 'back in the game' to you?"  
  
"Alright, make sure Jordy stays with you guys until I get back."   
  
"Can't. He's in Buffalo." In the background, I could hear her pecking away still. She seemed. unaffected by this. "Don't worry. I have the security system--"  
  
"BUFFALO!" When I left, he'd been asleep with his head on the kitchen table.  
  
Her response was simple. "Mustard."    
  
Jordy's personal demon: a guy with a grudge who just so happened to have a yellow power ring. He had the annoying tendency to interrupt family dinners, important holidays and any time I was trying to give that young man a serious talking-to.    
  
"Another setup. Luthor knows we're gunning for him."  
  
"He's gotta know that a Lantern would be bringing down 'higher powers' on him." You don't try to kill a Justice League type's girlfriend without being prepared to face a little wrath. Especially if you're Luthor, in which case you're already on the League's bad side anyways. We had his number.  
  
Swallowing bile, I made it back to the Tower in record time. "We also have to accept the possibility that he Knows," I said distastefully.    
  
"We have one more possibility to face," my wife told me quietly. "That Mara doesn't know this is a trap."    
  
CONTINUED In Part Three 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimers in part 1.  
  
Final Retaliation 3/5  
  
~~Clark~~  
  
The air in the Watch Tower grew heavy with the smell of discontent. Mostly it emitted from Diana, Princess of Themiscrya. Her discontent was directed entirely towards me. In full Wonder Woman regalia, she stood in front of me, arms folded across her gold-laden chest.  
  
"It really WASN'T a big deal," I told her calmly, turning my attention to the monitors. I feigned interest in the lit consoles-anything so I wouldn't have to maintain her gaze. Maybe she'd get the hint. "He's under a lot of pressure. He let off some steam."  
  
Her voice was hard with experience. "That is NOT an acceptable manner of letting off steam."  
  
"Trust me," I told her. "I could have stopped him if I'd wanted. I'm not taking it seriously, Diana, and neither should you." I tried to keep my voice light, as if I didn't understand her intensity.  
  
"And the rest of it?"  
  
I shrugged.  
  
She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me around to face her. "You've been terribly reticent regarding Robin's current. course of action. I demand to know why."  
  
I forced myself to maintain her gaze. "I have my reasons."  
  
"Kal El, it would appear that you are taking her side."  
  
"It can appear however you wish it to appear, Princess. I won't have any part in a mission that's sole purpose is to take her down. She is one of us."  
  
"She turned down membership," Diana pointed out steadily. "She is NOT one of us, and she is no longer a Titan. You have to face it: she has gone rogue. She is using her abilities and her grandfather's resources to wage a war as herself and as Robin."  
  
"No bystanders have been harmed from her end thus far." I knew innocents had been harmed from his end. It was almost a Luthor trademark.  
  
"The property damage alone has been limitless. Kal El, something WILL be done, with or without the Chair's approval."  
  
It was my turn to drop the pleasantries and turn toward cold civility. "That sounds an awful lot like mutiny."  
  
"There's dissention in the ranks and you're not helping. Nightwing is obviously taking her side, so is Green Lantern. That leaves me, and the others to keep the order. This is NOT how we handle things." I knew how we ran things. She and I had both been around long enough that we were practically institutions. I was aware of the way things worked-what we stood for.  
  
But, I knew what she was saying. In short summary: she wanted Robin taken care of before word got out that SHE was doing these things. "We need to be worried about more than appearances."  
  
"I know Luthor's been a pain in your side for many years. It may be clouding your judgment. And I AM worried about more than appearances. BATMAN, first and foremost, would want her dispatched before harm came to her or others. For the sake of his memory, and any harm that could potentially come to her, we need to do this. It is for her own good."  
  
My eyes narrowed. There was no graceful way out of this situation. "I know you think that. But harm has already come to her. Intervention on our part is not going to give her back what she lost." Suddenly I turned from her, uncomfortable with how much I'd revealed.  
  
"You DO know something we don't."  
  
"My telling you will change NOTHING. Do what you're going to do, Diana. I wont be a party to it." The truth of it was, even if they knew, it wouldn't change things. If anything, it would garner their further disapproval of the way she was handling this. Yes, Robin was going far above and beyond that line which we had long ago drawn for ourselves. I couldn't change that. I couldn't change that when it came down to it-this way of handling it was wrong. Even if I wanted to smash Luthor in the face myself. But after seeing her lying there in the hospital, looking so lost and so hurt-I wouldn't stop her. I had no right.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jim~~  
  
I sat my old man's bones down on the ottoman in the study, watching Jimmy work. The boy had real talent.  
  
" I don't understand what the hell her problem is," he said peevishly. "Like she's the only one who matters or something. Like we all don't have problems." His voice caught. He'd never admit he really did care about her.  
  
He was constructing something to interfere with the field she'd thrown up around the cave, and like his father, he liked to talk while he worked with his hands. I couldn't really do much until we got down into the cave, so I offered moral support. "I know," I muttered.  
  
"She's always like. look at me. I'm a psychopath." He waved his wrench in the air.  
  
I didn't answer that. He'd come a long way, lately. He never believed Bruce had any feelings at all for him. I knew, he'd told me often. Then Bruce had gone and gotten himself killed for Jimmy. That in itself was a burden for him, no matter how much he told me that he was sure Bruce was much happier now. Now he was dealing with impending fatherhood and a sister who wouldn't let anyone help her through her grief.  
  
He turned the generator on it's side and began playing with a pewter box that looked about where the Tin Man's heart should go. "You ever think it's just a desperate plea for attention?"  
  
"Like rappelling into the gymnasium and destroying your Junior Prom? No, Jimmy. I don't know anyone who does things just for ATTENTION ."  
  
He frowned and went back to work. "I didn't rappel in," he muttered. "I just helped others rappel in. Anyways, I'm so over it."  
  
"Or getting your girlfriend pregnant at THIS year's prom. Refusing to use your inheritance because its "Bat money," then throwing away a scholarship to MIT so you can commute to GCU? No, Jimmy. You're Mister Responsibility. You both have some SERIOUS character flaws, so I'd watch it."  
  
He pulled an uncut forest green stone out of a cloth handkerchief. "So- ory."  
  
"I'm sorry," I told him. "I don't like getting up this early." I used to be an early riser in Chicago. Now days I was lucky to crawl out of bed before noon. I blamed Bruce.  
  
I missed our late-night talks.  
  
He jammed the rock into the box, and realized the door wouldn't close. "Aww, crap, now I have to cut it." Grabbing it with the handkerchief, he took it over to the desk. "I get all pissed that we go through all this effort to save her ass and she doesn't even appreciate it."  
  
"She does. She's like Bruce though. She'll just never say it to your face."  
  
I watched him get out a mallet. He certainly wasn't taking stone cutting to it's exact science.  
  
"Bruce really did keep a hold on her, didn't he?" I missed him. Nothing was the same without him. And at times like these, we all missed his presence even more.  
  
"She like worshiped him or something. It isn't healthy." Tapping what looked to be an icepick (like I said, he wasn't exactly getting scientific about it) with his mallet, the rock sparked yellow, and a pyramid shaped piece popped off and onto the table. "Remind me to clean that up," he said, looking at the white slivers on the desk. "Superman'll kick my butt if I leave shards of Kryptonite floating around the house."  
  
"Kryptonite?"  
  
"Needed something to beat out her Grantomite. Figures she'd pocket some rock off of a hell planet. Saving it for a rainy day. Or a protocol to take out her boyfriend." He growled. "I don't know why he puts up with her crap. She doesn't deserve him."  
  
He tried the fit again, and was content with it. "Just need to get it in there," he explained. "I needed a rock that emitted more radiation than her rock. You know, mine's bigger than yours? Anyways, that's what it runs off of. So it doesn't really matter that it's like mixed with chunks of iron and stuff. Ok, whatever. I'm rambling."  
  
I watched him turn on the diesel generator. It began putting oily black smoke. Alfred would love that. "Anyways, I guess it's time to get this show on the road." While the battery was charging, he pulled the clock away from the wall and inspected the glowing field that separated the library from the stairs. "So. Uh. This is either gonna work, or not."  
  
He scratched his neck, then went over to his device. It looked like a car engine with tumors and a ray gun. I'm sure Bruce would have been very proud.  
  
"Here we go," Jimmy muttered, throwing the switch. There was a burst of green light tinged on the edges with bright purple that grew until we couldn't see. There was a loud pop like glass breaking. Suddenly, I realized I was choking on smoke.  
  
"Shut it off!" I called out against the roar of the engine. A few moments later, it was smoky, but quiet and dark.  
  
He pulled the flashlight out of his belt and turned it on, then shined it on the wall, or where the wall used to be. The clock was obliterated-shards of wood were all over the floor. The plaster wall had a large hole in it, the edges of which were black and purple, of all things. but the good news is, the field was down.  
  
"Um. ok," Jimmy said, heading down the steps. "Guess Kryptonite was too MUCH oomph."  
  
That boy better pray to God Mara's not down there. She'll kill him.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Mara~~  
  
"Mara, I know you can hear me on this channel." I flipped to another frequency. "And this one," came Tim's patient voice. Why the hell was he suddenly intent on 'reasoning' with me?  
  
"We need to talk. You have to know--" I turned my ear piece off. I'd only kept it on when passing through the electromagnetic fields under the front lawn in the access tunnels to help ferret them out. Tim and I had nothing to talk about.  
  
I found another access panel. My original intent was to disable the power in this wing, but I knew that that would be a bad idea, when I saw the metal pikes that pretended to be decoration in the wood paneled ceiling. If I shut the power off, the field holding them in place would release them, and I'd be skewered. Luthor thought things out, I'd give him that.  
  
Gently sliding my knife between the cracks in the hard wood, it popped opened. I needed to cut the power to the lights and maintain the power to the security grid. The lights being out would only make my job half-easier, but still, it was necessary. Killing myself now would not accomplish my mission.  
  
Still-I had one distinct advantage over Luthor's security system. Maiming of self was an acceptable option.  
  
Metropolis was not the place I'd have chosen for this. Fortunately Superman was occupied else ware (I'd had the Watch Tower monitor schedule memorized for years), and Superboy was easily avoided. Fortunately for me, he'd never developed x-ray vision like his mentor, and so that left subterranean routs entirely feasible.  
  
There was no wiring. That would be difficult. Everything was flat paneled circuits embedded in plastic. I pulled out a small torch. If I heated the right circuitry, I could cause a failure without setting off an alarm. The question was-which board was it?  
  
Quickly thinking, I turned to the most guarded board and began adjusting the heat level of the torch. I was so close. I could almost smell his rotten stink.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
The summer sun was blinding, and as we turned in the air, I lost sight of my opponent for a second. A second was all he needed.  
  
"You are WEAK!" Another yellow bolt caught me in the chest.  
  
"Bla, bla, bla," I grumbled as I pealed myself off the black asphalt of the basketball court I'd landed on a hundred feet below. Trembling, I got to my feet and shot off again into the air. "Can we get this over with?" I asked flippantly. "I have other places to be."  
  
Fortunately, I dodged the next bolt that was aiming for my head. I swooped below and used the force of the ring to tear the heavy metal chains off of the swing set and took them up with me.  
  
"A date with death is an appointment well-kept." Behind his bushy moustache, Mustard grinned. Today really wasn't a good day for him to be escaping from the Slab. And how the hell had he gotten the ring back?  
  
"Can we reschedule? I got some other stuff going down, if that's OK with you." I hurled myself over and behind him. I swung the chain into his back. The secret was, I just couldn't use the ring on him directly. It was something Robin had taught me in my first year with Young Justice. When in doubt, grab something and start swinging.  
  
He lost control and went flying about sixty yards to the east, and I chased after him. Using his own momentum, I trussed him up in the chains and began pulling him towards the ground. When I got him on the hot asphalt, I grabbed for his hand to tear the ring off. Giving it a good tug, I realized it wasn't giving.  
  
He laughed. A hideous, devious old-guy laugh. It was fused to his finger. I'd been set up.  
  
A wave of yellow energy shot out from him like a supernova, and I was thrown back and past the basketball hoop, then into the ivy covered fence. I was in serious trouble.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jim~~  
  
Jimmy looked around the cave, surveying his sister's handiwork. "This is why I love being me. Constantly playing second string to a complete nutcase." He shook his head, then stepped over the refuse and connected to his mother on the large computer in the center of the cave. I stayed at the bottom of the steps, surveying the damage. I'd never been down here before, and it was an impressive site-even in it's current state.  
  
There was equipment littering the floors, several tables of lab tools had been spilled over and one of the incidental computers was in pieces on the floor.  
  
"It's like she went nutso," Jimmy told Barbara. "The vault's opened too. There's all kinds of stuff missing. I don't know if it's all among the destruction or what. I mean. all His old equipment. What the hell's she thinking?"  
  
I ventured to walk over the rubble. I'd seen buildings leveled in the quake look more organized than this.  
  
"I'm attempting a hack now," she informed us. "I'll get into the computer and see what I can find. Get everything else she has. The stuff she stole from Luthor--"  
  
Jimmy groaned. "I KNOW what I'm doing, MOM. How's Crys?"  
  
"Morning sickness aside? She's been randomly misfiring her powers since you left, and I think she broke the stove. You're going to fix it when--"  
  
Barbara's image blacked off the screen.  
  
"Crap. Mom? Oracle?"  
  
He began punching into the keyboard violently, trying to reestablish a connection as I walked toward the only untouched place in the entire cave- the glass cases. In front of it was a mound of broken glass, paper and wood. Her model ship collection was in a pile on the floor-a giant ship graveyard at the base of His glass case. Ever so slowly, my stiff knees bent as I grabbed one of the masts and sails.  
  
She may have visited with me, kept me company, and allowed me to keep her confidence, but she wasn't mine. She'd never belonged to me, Bruce. She was always entirely yours.  
  
".Jimmy." there was a large crackling sound as he picked up Dick's signal.  
  
"Mom blipped off. Something's wrong at home."  
  
"I know. Elaborate trap."  
  
"Dad." he started with concern. "Crys can't help. Her powers have been frizzing out lately. Since. you know."  
  
I could hear the static filled pause grow ever lengthier as I dug through the broken glass. Slowly, I pulled out the only ship that hadn't been too badly destroyed.  
  
"Look, any information you find, rout through Donna. Everything goes to her until I find out what's going on at home. 'Till then, I'm going incommunicado. I'm almost at the house. Jimmy. everything's going to be ok."  
  
With that, the signal cut off, leaving us devoid of even static to fill the silence.  
  
"I hate her," he said firmly. "I really do. What the heck am I supposed to do with all this stuff?" he began shuffling through papers with disgust.  
  
Dragging myself to my feet, I made my way over to him. "I think that's why I'm here. Either way, it's going to take both of us." I grabbed some of the records. Unfortunately, they weren't in any order any more. That would make this all the harder. Especially since we were dealing with a lack of information, as opposed to too much information.  
  
Besides her total and absolute dedication, Mara had always had one skill that surprised me. She had a natural ability to construct plausible ideas out of a LACK of information. Somehow, what was missing from a scene, or from paper work mulled around in her brain, and she could almost magically deduce what course of events had lead to where she then found herself.  
  
"All right. Old schedules," I muttered.  
  
Jimmy grabbed those papers out of my hands. "I've seen her play the schedules game before. I think I can sort through these."  
  
I saw some plans, and found one in particular that I found interesting, because of the markings sketched over them. These looked like official city planning documents, and yet what she'd overlaid on top of them didn't make any sense. I couldn't see any reason these access tunnels or controllers would be in the locations she'd set them. She, of course, knew something we didn't.  
  
I showed him the first blue print. "What city is this?" I asked Jimmy.  
  
He glanced at it. "Well, it isn't here."  
  
"Thank you." There was a reason his girlfriend called him 'Captain Obvious'. She was a sweet girl, and I knew she was good for him-she didn't put up with Jimmy's crap, and she had him pegged right down to the last 'I don't wanna'.  
  
There were no names on either of these plans, no street names I recognized. If Barbara were on-line, she'd be able to help.  
  
Looking at the second sheet, I frowned. It was on the edge of my mind. "Hyperion Square," I said out loud, wondering if it would ring a bell to either of us.  
  
"Dude, that's Metropolis. There was a thing once, and we blew up the art installation that was there accidentally on purpose, so they put the square in. It's a park now."  
  
"A thing once," I muttered.  
  
He nodded, then dialed up the Titans Tower. "Got a possible city location," he told Troia. How easily I'd adjusted to this aspect of my family's life, I marveled. A few decades ago, I'd given myself a heart attack over it. I supposed this was an improvement. "Metropolis. Somewhere around Hyperion Square."  
  
I kept looking over the plans. "She's apparently adjusted for tunnels and things she knows about and we don't, but I have no idea where she's going." It wasn't exactly a treasure map. The lay out was complete, not like she'd mapped a certain course for herself.  
  
"Luthor has six properties in that area," a warm, feminine voice responded. "Superboy is on it. We'll get what Titans we can to the area, ASAP."  
  
Jimmy shook his head, still somewhat disappointed. "We'll keep looking for specific details. It's like. she doesn't care if we find out. She woulda just destroyed the evidence. It's either a challenge. or she thinks she's gonna be in and out before we can stop her. We gotta pick up the pace. I'll call you when we have something, Daedalus out."  
  
I arched an eyebrow at him.  
  
"Hey, Nighthawk's retired. Needed SOMETHING to call myself." He picked up a stack of papers and attempted to order them then gave up. He looked up with a roguish half-grin. "And I got a sense of irony."  
  
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. I had the sudden feeling the kid wasn't as retired as he thought.  
  
Frantically he began digging through the papers. "I'm gonna tape HER to the ceiling when I find her," he grumbled. "See how SHE likes it. And then she can't go doing stuff this monumentally STUPID any more. If Luthor doesn't kill her, I may do the honors."  
  
He rambled on, and I continued my own search. Time was not on our side.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Dick~~  
  
Driving down the street, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. There was smoke wafting along the breeze that smelled like a mixture of propane, masonry and wood. I was more worried that I'd ever remembered being.  
  
Pulling up to my smoking house, I began to find it necessary to murder someone. Kristin was standing on the corner, talking to one of my less reputable coworkers.  
  
How long had I been in this town? The major players had long since been vanquished. Unfortunately, there were always pockets of people springing up. And right now, I didn't take kindly to his implication that she could have done more about the fire, just because she's a Meta.  
  
Kristen looked like she was ready to cry.  
  
"Leave the kid alone, Sanderson," I said. "The girl doesn't have control over ANYTHING right now due to a. medical condition. So just back off and quit throwing blame around." I had NO idea what happened, but I really wasn't in the mood.  
  
The back side of my house was smoking so thick and black I couldn't really tell what the damage was just yet. There were two fire engines out front, the usual police cars, and my fuming wife on the sidewalk, explaining forcefully that she was SURE there was no damage to the third floor, and they had NO NEED to try and get up there. Which was true. The top floor and the basement were concrete and steel-reinforced, for those. special occasions.  
  
I flashed my badge and asked what the hell was going on. The current story was that my propane tank on my grill blew up and took the backside of the second floor of the house with it. The fire department would determine how THAT had happened. I liked that damned grill.  
  
I came up beside my wife and scowled at the two men accosting her. "TRUST me, the third floor is fine."  
  
"We need to see if there is any structural damage."  
  
I was SO not in the mood. "Fine," I said. Barbara's scowl was priceless. I held up a finger to tell them to wait one moment, and then walked over to a fire inspector I was familiar with. I explained I wanted him to 'inspect' the inside of the house, and to give the third floor a clean bill of health. His eyebrow arched, and I gave him a half-smile. "Or your superiors find out about the money you've been accepting from certain. families." Crime families. It was something Nightwing was working on. There went that case, but at this juncture, I had some more pressing problems going.  
  
That dumb kid of mine didn't know to what lengths I'd go for her. Lack of appreciation was the hallmark of parenting, I was coming to see.  
  
During a break in the action, I went over to my wife. She was shaking her head angrily. I knew she hated being out of action-and right now really wasn't a good time to be on the outs. "I rerouted all information through Donna," I muttered. "No word yet. She's in Metropolis. Kon is on it."  
  
She clenched her eyes shut. "This has been the day from hell. Jordy was requesting back up, but I couldn't rout him before all this happened. I don't know if anyone knows. Damnit, I hate being out of contact." We had equipment in other places, but with the place crawling with authority figures, there wasn't much we could do. "Kristen tried to put it out, but her powers aren't for anything right now."  
  
I just nodded in consolation. That's how we'd found out about her current condition. She'd misfired during battle and slipped on her own ice patch.  
  
"All that time. all that money." I knew she was mad. After Bruce died, she invested all her energy and cash into making the communication system more reliable. It didn't help when part of the equipment was blown up, nor did it help when you were forced to leave the equipment behind. "Anyways, it's all ok, except for the fried stuff on the roof." We'd planned for something similar. At the touch of a button all the equipment would fold into the metal walls where it'd be safe from prying eyes, heat and nuclear winter.  
  
"Ok. I'm going to wander off, explain the situation to Donna, see if we can get someone out to Jordan and see if we have an update from Gotham or Metropolis." Her eyes watered just a little. "Look, we're going to find her."  
  
She shook her head, forcing the emotion back down. When you weren't in your element any more, it was easy for it to well up.  
  
I squeezed her hand and kissed her forehead. "I'm going to miss the grill most of all," I told her jokingly. "It was a good grill."  
  
"Dick," she whispered. "Get the hell out of here." With a sad smile she gently pushed me away.  
  
Fucking hell of a day this was turning out to be.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
My body slammed into the asphalt one more time. I was getting crushed here. Wiping the tar and rocks out of the bloody scrape wound on my cheek, I looked back up into the sky. Backup would be really good right about now.  
  
Another bold of yellow energy ground me into the basketball court. Talk about hitting me when I'm down. This HAD to end, or I was going to be going home in a pine box. I couldn't even begin to think how Mara would find new ways to blame herself for that. Assuming she pulled out of whatever she had gotten herself into.  
  
It was hard to stay conscious at this point. I'd been thrown through just about every piece of metal playground equipment, the fence twice, and dragged along the asphalt. Rolling onto my side, I wiped the blood out of my eyes then lifted my shaking hand in the direction of the hoop at the other end of the court. Focusing all of my attention upon it, I shot out a clear green beam that snapped the metal poll it hung from in two. I didn't have the energy or thought process to be creative any more. Dad would be disappointed; he said it was all about finesse.  
  
Maybe he'd look back on me and at least THINK his son died with finesse. He'd be so disappointed after the way mom went. At least I was getting my ass kicked by a character from Clue. That counted for points somewhere, right?  
  
The sharp, hollow poll detached from the ground. Another burst of energy separated it from the backboard and the hoop. With my last conscious thought, the pipe went hurling through the air with all the speed and force I could muster. My head smacked off the pavement, and the world went red, then black.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Mara~~  
  
I made it past oak-paneled hall with the spiky ceiling adornments. Ever so slowly my good gloved hand wrapped around the brass door knob and turned it. I had made it. Past his guards, past his SS agents and past his security. And I knew he'd be here. The schedules. everything was in alignment. Like the stars.  
  
I opened the door to see a figure laying on a table in near-darkness. Massage day for Lexy. I hoped he was well rested, because this was going to hurt. A lot.  
  
As I entered, I felt an electrical charge in the air. I didn't know if it was real or imaginary until metal slammed out of the ceiling and closed me off from the door. This was frighteningly like with Ra's al Ghoul. My stomach lurched, remembering how that had turned out. Especially for. Him.  
  
There had been so many things unsaid between He and I. It had all ended so suddenly, and I was plunged into this world-this madness. This place there was only one escape from. He brought order. Now there was none. Now there was only my on fault and my own misguided deeds. Nothing could save me from myself.  
  
"Sit down, stay a while," The figure on the table, dressed in gray silk, rose to his feet. "You are late, you know. Did the outer ring of security under the front lawn give you trouble?  
  
The lights slowly rose. "Luthor," I said icily.  
  
His pasty white head smiled at me with a satisfaction akin to that which the Joker derived from killing the innocent. "The Bird. It's been a while. I have to know-were you contracted out by Wayne Enterprises, or did the Lantern call you in?"  
  
Quickly, I began computing the depth of the door way and the possible depth of the metal shield blocking me from freedom. I soon realized I didn't have anything that'd blast the hole I needed without taking out the whole room.  
  
"Wouldn't you like to know," I said defiantly, reaching for my razors. I could at least kill him. I was certain I could do what I came here to do, before security or the SS found me and had me eliminated. And I wouldn't fight.  
  
Upon my death, my suit would self-destruct, eliminating incriminating evidence-namely, my body.  
  
"I never did like Wayne. I like his protégé even less. At least he was honest. He never called in. hired guns." The florescent lights bounced off his bald head, and he looked ever more like a snake. "Of course, I should know she'd meet an assassination attempt with something of equal venom and much less flourish."  
  
As I prepared to launch the razors, the floor beneath one foot electrified past what my suit could withstand. The cry strangled in my throat as it passed through me. As suddenly as it began, the force that was grabbing hold of me let go. I dropped to the floor like a sack of sand.  
  
He advanced slowly upon me with a confidence I did not like. "And without your partner, I see. Which is good. I'd have been very. annoyed should I have had to deal with him too. And trust me. He won't find you in time."  
  
I lay on my side, completely out of control of myself. It wasn't painful per say. I winced, trying to gather hold of my muscles. He didn't know that no one was coming for me, least of all my partner. Of course-I'd be seeing him sooner than I thought. If only my hand hadn't seized around the razors and was now refusing to let go. If only.  
  
Luthor stopped right in front of me. I slowly turned my eyes upward. "Piece. of. shit," I ground out, finally finding control enough of my voice to speak.  
  
There was a dishonest gleam in his eye. "How much fouler your language is without your mentor around," he laughed. He dared to laugh, then reached over me, taking a sword off the wall. "Should I demask you now, or after I behead you?"  
  
My hand still wouldn't function, but my arm was returning to me. Even though I was laying on it, my right hand shot out and I slammed the razor into the side of his calf. Immediately he let out a scraping howl and the blood flowed, and a second behind that, the sword turned in his hand and shot through Kevlar, Nomex and my shoulder.  
  
"You've caused me enough grief!" With a red, trembling hand, he pulled downward, and I could feel the metal scraping the bone. Fortunately, his own pain prevented him from doing worse for the time being. "How will your employers like to find out that their agent is DEAD?"  
  
Wincing, he took a step back ward, leaving the sword sticking out of me as if I were an umbrella stand. He stumbled once on his torn open leg. He looked grimly satisfied when he next spoke, his thin lips pulled back in half a smile. "Of course, Mr. Rayner may not survive the day himself." Oh, God. Jordy. My stomach dropped through the floor. I meant this to fix things, not.  
  
"And with Ms. Grayson's parents out of the way, then yourself for example. Well, she won't have anyone to avenge her." He paused in his rantings, then grinned suddenly, some sort of knowledge lighting his face. Blood soaked his gray pant leg, but he dared to take another step forward. He tore the knife out of my shoulder and raised it over his head.  
  
"Bastard," I whispered with conviction. There was a moment of intense silence. Sweat glistened off his ugly round skull. Then the air whistled as it was cut with the blade. I at least had the dignity to keep eye contact with him as the foil came hurling down toward my neck.  
  
Continued in Part Four 


	4. Chapter 4

See disclaimers in part one  
  
Final Retaliation part 4/5  
  
**  
  
~~Tim~~  
  
There was an explosion, then the tinkling sound of a rainstorm of glass and metal.  
  
The blade cut through the air with a whistle. Before it could come down upon it's object, a bat-shaped razor shot through the air. It connected with it's intended target-Lex Luthor's hand. There came a gush of blood, a rush of screaming protest, and the sound of him dropping the sword upon the tiled floor.  
  
Robin's eyes broke contact with her captor and lifted upwards, to the hole that lead to freedom. "B-batman?"  
  
Flying at Luthor, I leveled him with one punch and pulled her to the wooden table before the floor could ignite in a crackle of electricity.  
  
The wall I had crashed through closed off as a violet force field snapped into place, and Luthor got to his feet. Of course, one leg was badly damaged, so that was quite a challenge. Grabbing the sword, he used it to support his weight. "You're early."  
  
Behind the cowl, my eyes narrowed. I didn't dare to speak. It wasn't necessary.  
  
Still keeping my head aloft and directed toward Luthor, I chanced a glance at my charge. She was broken and bleeding and needed attention very soon.  
  
"I planned for you too," Luthor said. "After all, what is a Bird without her Bat?" And his play with words was bad too.  
  
The room behind us ignited in a fiery haze. I pulled the cape around us until the initial blast subsided. The goal was merely to hold ground temporarily.  
  
Unfortunately, 'temporarily' grew too long. Security and SS were on us like white on rice. The room filled, and I didn't think the cape could take what they were packing. Not to mention, I had an extremely injured partner on my hands.  
  
The room was huge, more like a hall. When the gunfire opened up, it echoed like the applause of the gods, loud and heavy-handed.  
  
Smoke pellets instantly went flying, but my opposition was prepared. Pulling my charge closer to the violet field blocking our exit, I let the flash pellets go. There was a series of flashes, and then. the big one I'd been waiting for.  
  
The building rumbled beneath us, even though we were already on the first floor. The power went, the force field went down, and I flew through the hole we'd made and downward. I'd intentionally blew this hole with those explosives set on timed charges. Right now we desperately needed to go under ground-where there was no day light, and where we had a possible advantage.  
  
As I pulled her long, limp body with me, access tunnels closed off to us, and I was caught in Daedalus' maze. Fortunately, I had one last card to play. Finding the appropriate tunnel, I went upward.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Clark~~  
  
Alarms sounded and began flashing before my eyes. Video feeds changed to the source of the problem: Metropolis. My city.  
  
"A break in on Luthor property?" Wonder Woman asked with something akin to satisfaction that her point was hitting home. I watched the smoke rise off the building. The north wing had suffered heavy damage from explosions. "That should tell you right there where things stand," she said from behind me.  
  
I frowned, switching to another view. Superboy and Arsenal were approaching the scene. Oracle was mysteriously off-line.  
  
"Why are the Titans involved?" She turned on her communicator and called everyone to the Watchtower-everyone except Nightwing and Green Lantern. Not that they would have come, I was certain. Things had just blown apart, and I was sitting here, on the moon. On a fence.  
  
Five minutes later, the table was full, but no one was sitting. The general attitude and edge would not permit more than standing behind one's chair. I did not even approach the table. I nodded to Aquaman, Flash and Plastic Man. The Manhunter gave me a look and I knew he was partially on my side, which was more than I had with the other three.  
  
"Isn't that YOUR city?" Arthur asked sarcastically. I suppose that tells us which side HE is on. Of course, I should have known. Arthur and Diana have had the great on-again, off-again relationship of our age, and a son to prove it. I was glad Balius wasn't in Metropolis, that would only complicate things.  
  
"Superboy has the fire contained," Wonder Woman said without prompting. "But the fact of it is, she's out of control. We do not know yet about loss of life in Luthor's complex. Based upon her mental state, we can expect heavy casualties. Prepare for opposition. Nightwing and the Titans can not be trusted."  
  
"Diana." Why was I even bothering to interrupt?  
  
"NOT NOW," she told me. "You've made it clear where you stand. She's coming down. And anyone who sides with her."  
  
"This is getting out of hand," I said. "Don't turn this into a witch hunt."  
  
I could see everyone preparing to follow her. I remained rooted in my place.  
  
"He's right, Mother."  
  
Balius and Tempest were blocking everyone's path to the teleporter.  
  
"I should have known you'd be caught up in this, Balius." She sounded SO disappointed.  
  
"Clear the door way," Arthur instructed his two protégés.  
  
I had to give them credit-they remained resolved. "We're not letting you do something you'll regret," Tempest informed Aquaman.  
  
"Regret?" I could tell Flash was about at the end of his rope. He was very close to Dick, and didn't want to be on the other side-but he didn't know where else to be. He really did think he was doing the right thing.  
  
"Wally, just listen," I urged. All this power, and I was useless. They were fighting among themselves.  
  
"I've listened enough," he ground out. "No one's SAYING anything. So I say we go down there and start DOING something."  
  
And suddenly, we were at a stalemate.  
  
Before I could open my mouth in further protest, a channel our computers regularly scanned came opened. There'd been a battle in New York. Previously there'd been a yellow field around the area, not letting anyone in. Now the field was weakening, and they were reporting an injured escapee from the Slab who appeared to still be dangerous and a hero down-possibly dead-the young Lantern.  
  
"Jordy." I muttered.  
  
For a moment, Diana's purpose seemed split. Her eyes met mine, and I witnessed the entire internal battle. Finally she scowled. "Balius, with me. We're going to Buffalo." I was sure that'd go well. Balius was not very fond of Jordan. "Superman. you don't want this to turn into a witch hunt- I'll give you ONE CHANCE. You diffuse whatever's going on in Metropolis, and neutralize her. Flash, you are with Superman." She turned to the others. "Tempest and Aquaman, SOLVE THIS." And with that, she was in action.  
  
* * *  
  
There were hands. turning me over. Pulling my face out of the pulverized asphalt.  
  
"Jordan Rayner," a voice said sternly. "Jordan."  
  
With all the effort I could gather, one eye opened. "Shit," I muttered finally, seeing her standing above me.  
  
The sun was low in the sky, and made her glow like some sort of angel. With my luck, she was the angel of death. Wonder Woman.  
  
"You are still alive," a male voice said behind her. I could feel myself being lifted onto a straight board. As I was, I saw Balius behind his mother.  
  
"Sorry," I muttered. I knew he wanted her. Maybe he was here to blame me.  
  
"Take courage," he told me. "Continue to act as a warrior."  
  
"Jordan, stay right where you are," Wonder Woman ordered peevishly. Family tension, much?  
  
There were people, probably EMT's trying to stabilize my neck. Before they could do so, the ring ignited and I pulled myself upward in a capsule of green light. I felt like. well, like I'd been pounded into the ground. My head throbbed, my back ached, and I could barely see through what I supposed were swollen eyes. But Balius was right, I had other things to worry about.  
  
"Jordan, get down here," Wonder Woman ordered me, louder than the EMS staff's protests that I do the same. "There's asphalt ground into the wounds on your face. At least let them clean your wounds."  
  
Was she being civil to me? Slowly, my hand lifted to my cheek and shuddered as I brushed the debris out of the wound. THAT was going to scar. "I have someone to find," I told her hoarsely.  
  
"The Justice League has her location." She rose into the air to meet me.  
  
"That's. what I'm afraid." I couldn't get the rest out. I looked around at the destroyed play yard. Mustard was pinned to the ivy covered fence. The metal pipe had been intended knock him unconscious, not crush his ring hand into the fence. "They have to get the ring off him," I told her weakly. "It's. joined to his finger. I couldn't. Get it off."  
  
I began drooping in the air. I needed to just have enough will to find her- to stop the Justice League from doing-"Why aren't you there? Metropolis?"  
  
Her arms folded over her chest. "Why don't you go back down there, and we can talk about this--" I forced myself upward and away from her. "Fine," she said, joining me. "We look after our own," she informed me. "That includes you, and that includes her. Our interference is. for her own good. It was decided. it would be in the best interests of the group. if Superman were to. put a stop to her efforts."  
  
"Well, I'm taking over. From here." I was really in great shape for it. but what could be done? Mr. Kent wasn't the ideal person to stop her. I knew she had protocols set up against his interference.  
  
"You're in no condition." She paused and turned slightly in the air. "She's being returned to Gotham. Luthor is alive, but under lock and key. She is harmed, but not mortally."  
  
When she turned to gauge my reaction, I was already a hundred yards up, and away.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jim~~  
  
"Nightwing says Oracle and Crystal are more than alright," Troya assured us. "The damage to the house was minimal because of all the. modifications." Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief from where he knelt on the floor, among the sea of papers. He'd given Superboy a possible location for Robin a few minutes before the explosions were reported.  
  
"Thank God," I said. "And still no word--?"  
  
"No. Wait. I have a signal-I'm patching them through." She sounded very pleased and hopeful.  
  
The next voice we heard was as dark as Bruce's, but not as tainted or gritty. "This is Batman," I sat down in the smaller of the two chairs near the communication's console with a thud. "I have Robin and I'm bringing her home. Stab wounds, possible broken shoulder, blood loss. Prepare the medical bay." The signal cut out.  
  
Jimmy looked up at me with round eyes. "Holy Fucking Shit."  
  
My mouth had run dry. I could neither remind him to watch his mouth, or agree.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Tim~~  
  
I'd patched her up as best as I could, but she was still unconscious from the blood loss. It was best. When it came down to it-there was a long conversation due about our current situation, one that she'd probably be too incensed to have right now.  
  
It had been a great deal of hassle to get her out of Luthor's territory, but I still wished I'd have had time to teach him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. I reminded myself sternly that I needed to have patience. There was a time and a place for all. I needed to poses His patience, and then I'd be that much closer to my goal.  
  
The drive was long, but it gave me enough time to gather my thoughts about me. There'd been too many changes-too many lines erased and redrawn in the last few months. I had a certain amount of guilt that I had found myself among the chaos and rubble. I also had another measure of guilt that I hadn't done it sooner-at least for Robin and my child's sakes.  
  
As I sped onward, I could feel my charge waking beside me. Her uninjured right arm slowly caressed the edge of the door where it met the glass. "Granpa. Didn't mean." Slowly her head turned and she looked at me. There were two horrible heartbeats until she realized who she was looking at. "You're not."  
  
I gave one curt nod.  
  
Her head turned and looked out the window, into the dark, seamless night. "You're not Him."  
  
"I am the Bat," I informed her. "But I won't try to be Him."  
  
She swallowed, and I could tell she had a problem with a lump in her throat. "I. understand," she said rawly. "Is Luthor.?"  
  
"Dead? No."  
  
She inclined her head downward. "You should have."  
  
"The Bat does not kill."  
  
Her lips were firmly closed-bitten together. That alone expressed her displeasure.  
  
"This will pass," I told her. "We will have him. This family WILL NOT let him escape."  
  
Her head came to rest on the window, and she began sobbing. All the pain of the last months-Bruce, then her most recently loss-came spilling out in heart felt cries. I knew she'd wanted to die-that was why I couldn't let her. A death wish isn't an acceptable use of one's last cat-life.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
I beat Mara back to the cave. Jimmy practically threw me into Med Bay one, and said he'd get the other one ready for her, but I wasn't going anywhere with my face looking like it was paved over by GothDOT.  
  
"This is gonna hurt," he said with a grin, flushing my now oozing wound. And he was right, it did.  
  
Where was Alfred? He'd save me from evil Field Surgeon Jimmy. The problem was-he'd been strangely reticent after Mara knocked me unconscious. I expected him to be down here, cleaning things up and making a fuss.  
  
"You like this," I told him with a shudder. I'd already thrown up twice since we started doing this. I was in pitiful shape, but I'd ordered him to make me at least presentable for when she came back.  
  
"Naw, just working myself up for when I get my hands on HER." Yeah, he'd REALLY enjoy that, wouldn't he?  
  
His grandfather leaned on the table across the bay. He folded his arms over his chest and stared at us. I had a feeling this was his first hands-on experience down in the Cave, just by how lightly he tread with everything.  
  
Beyond the partitioned room, I saw a flash of green light. "Wonder Woman said you were coming back here," my dad said, not stopping till he was at my side.  
  
"Yeah. Waiting for Mara. She's alive, dad." My relief knew no bounds.  
  
"You look like hell. I heard what happened."  
  
Jimmy got out some tape. My ribs weren't in the best of shape either. I could use the support right now. Breathing was almost like suffocating inside a plastic bag.  
  
I noticed a cut running across his forehead. "Looks like you had your own bad time."  
  
"Fatality." His face ceased up, and he refused to say any more. For some reason, in the last few years, he'd begun to refuse to talk about her. "Got out of the Slab with Mustard. I. I was tied up in New York. I didn't mean to leave you hanging."  
  
"I'm ok," I promised him. Dad got over-protective like that.  
  
Whatever was going on, it was far bigger than we'd realized at the beginning of the day.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Cassandra~~  
  
"And you live down here?" Sammy asked me with a bit of sadness. I shrugged. "There's no windows!" She looked up and down the round walls.  
  
"No. But you'll be safe. Daddy will fix everything, and then come get us."  
  
She rubbed the cut on her head. I could tell it was starting to itch. "He should hurry up."  
  
I knew she didn't like the idea of him being out there all alone. She didn't know how well-equipped he was. He probably didn't know how well equipped he was either.  
  
Her mousy brown hair bounced up and down in it's pony tail as she ran around the room. The dangerous stuff was locked up. She found one of my practice dummies and began tugging vigorously on its arms. I loved her innocence. At her age, I knew a hundred ways to turn the dummy into stuffing. She thought it was a big toy.  
  
"You gotta TV? Gotta COUCH?" I could tell she was a little worn out from everything that had happened. I wish I'd have been there. I'da done worse to them than Tim had.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"No wonder yer always over our house." She yawned.  
  
"Have a bed." I took her into the room where I slept. "We can sit on that." I knew she'd never go to sleep willingly. Right now she was too wound up- even if she was running out of steam. Bart used to do that. Then he'd just keep talking till he fell asleep. She had the soul of a speedster, I thought fondly as I sat down, pulling her into my lap.  
  
"It's a dumb bed. Just white sheets. You need daddy to buy you ones with super heroes on 'em."  
  
I couldn't help it. I started rocking her, and I laughed. "I think I'd like that very much, honey."  
  
"Yer trying to make me go to sleep," she said as her eyes closed.  
  
I wondered what I'd do when she got too big for rocking. I watched her sleep. Maybe Tim thought I was just a babysitter. Things were changing. I got him off his ass. I was sorry it took something bad to get him doing what he should be doing-but he was doing that. Maybe. some other things could change.  
  
The more I held her, the more I watched her grow-the more I wanted to move to some place that had a couch, and a super hero on the sheets.  
  
Things had happened. Things that make you think. Well, I'd already been thinking. All this just made me think more. Mara, and her. and what happened. Sammy getting hurt, and Tim finally doing what was right. I guess I just had to keep being persistent. Cause if I waited for Tim. well, he wasn't the most motivated person about some things.  
  
I lifted Sammy up, then pulled down the sheets. Tucking her into bed, I found a blanket and threw it over her. Bending, I kissed her head, then paused, taking in the smell of her. Even sweaty and worse for the wear, she still smelled sweet. Like family.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
Dad had gone to see if he could calm down the Justice League. Superman was pretty ticked that they'd blown up the place, then stormed right out. Luthor had gone strangely quiet, and Tempest had pleaded with us-if we didn't come out and start doing some serious explaining, everything would blow up even worse than it was now.  
  
My face was taped up pretty good, my ribs were taped up, and I was hobbling, but I made my way around the curtain. Batman looked sternly at Jimmy. "If she gives you a hard time, punch her," he ordered.  
  
Batman lay Robin on the table in the second medical bay. At first. I thought I was seeing a ghost, until I realized who it was.  
  
Mara didn't look like she was going to be giving anyone anything-she was thoroughly unconscious. I made my way to the table and stared at the bloody, crusted wound on her shoulder. Broken bones in that arm were the least of her worries now. "Thank you for bringing her back," I muttered.  
  
Tim tore the mask away from his face and sighed. He explained that she'd been awake for a little bit, and they'd had an. interesting conversation about the most recent string of events, but she couldn't be trusted to behave herself.  
  
Jimmy began looking her over, ran a few scans and started her on blood and fluids. He went back and inspected her shoulder. Shaking his head in disgust, he announced that the bone was scraped up pretty good in her shoulder, the collar bone cracked. She also had two clear breaks lower in the arm, where she'd broken it the first time. Gently, I rubbed her leg. I wished I could hold her, or at least squeeze her hand. Then, I'd reach out and strangle her.  
  
His grandfather couldn't do anything but shake his head and watch. "She's determined to do it," he muttered to Tim. "She's determined to get herself killed."  
  
By this time, Tim was pulling off the armor and throwing on the nearest clothes at hand. "She is. Don't underestimate her," Tim warned. "I have to go. I have to check on my daughter." He gestured to Mara's prone form on the table. "There's a lot I'd like to discuss with her, when she's awake."  
  
Yeah, you, me, and half the heroing world. Wonder Woman and Superman being really high up on that list.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Clark~~  
  
I showed up in time for Roy Harper to tell me that the show was over. That was embarrassing to say the least. I couldn't get any confirmation from Luthor's people as to his were abouts, not even as a concerned city protector. Luthor knew better. He knew we all wanted his ass.  
  
Kon gave Tempest a song and a dance about what he'd been doing helping her, watching over my city. I still couldn't believe that Wonder Woman expected Tempest and Balius to smooth things over. They had obvious ties to a group she found 'questionable'. Of course. one could suppose she liked to keep Inquisition type situations within the family.  
  
"So. where do we go from here?" I asked Harper. I wasn't usually the one asking for guidance.  
  
He kicked at the rubble on the lawn. "I wanted to check on her. But. too many people, you know?"  
  
"I know."  
  
I sighed. We'd both known her since birth. She'd been a sweet-if overactive child. She'd been a competent leader and able hero in her youth, and now- all of this. Now we were in a position of not being able to console her, and unable to help her. We were simply. excessive. Entirely after the fact.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
I dozed on the table next to Mara. I couldn't stay awake any more. I'd been scraped, scratched, flushed, taped, rehydrated and thoroughly pumped full of drugs. I could hear Alfred cleaning up the glass in front of the cases, and her grandfather talking to Oracle. I still couldn't figure out why Jimmy was taking care of her, and not Alfred. Something was going on. but I was too exhausted to pursue it further.  
  
Jimmy muttered under his breath as he put her back together. He complained that she was an idiot, she was selfish, a masochist. I listened to him drone on. It was almost. entrancing to hear.  
  
"Shut the hell up," a voice ground out finally. "Leave me the fuck alone."  
  
I forced myself to open my eyes. "Mara, let him fix you. You're in pieces." She was like a doll that needed stitches and plaster to make her work again.  
  
When I opened my eyes, she was trying to push him away. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she was too weak with blood loss. "Leave me go."  
  
Jimmy scowled at her. "Look, bitch, Tim said to deck you if you gave me a hard time."  
  
I frowned at him and came closer to her side. I grabbed her good arm. "Look, just let Jimmy work. We're going to get him. But you have to be well."  
  
She pushed my hand away. "Leave me go," she said desperately.  
  
Jimmy and I looked at each other helplessly. She wanted to die. Finally, a rage built up into him, and it violently spewed forth from his red face.  
  
"Look! I'm NOT going to let you die, or cripple yourself, so just GET THE FUCK OVER IT." Forcefully, he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back onto the table. "A bunch of people got hurt today trying to help you, and you're going to take our help and just be a good little sociopath and say thank you!"  
  
She looked at him spitefully. "Leave me alone. You don't know."  
  
"Mara, I know. God damn it, Mara, I know. Crys. if she lost ours. I'd want to kill him too. But Mara.they blew up mom's house today and Crys was there. And Sammy got hurt. God. You have to stop thinking about yourself for just a minute," the last was quiet-regretful.  
  
Her head turned away from him. I knew she didn't want to hear any of it. And I knew she didn't know about Jimmy's. news. "Mara, just listen to us, damn you." I grabbed her arm again. "You can't go trying to kill yourself when things get rough." I looked at Jimmy. I didn't know if he knew about the other time she'd tried this. "I know it hurts like hell. But this isn't the way through it."  
  
Which was exactly the wrong thing to say. She let out a high screech and tried to get off the table, but ended up collapsing on the floor. The IV ripped out of her hand, and the shoulder her brother hadn't been quiet done setting slammed against the ground. "Leave me-you don't. I didn't." Hystarical cries began emitting from her as Jimmy and I came around the table to grab her. I could hear her grandfather and Alfred approaching quickly.  
  
"Shh. Mara."  
  
Jimmy just shook his head. I'd heard him bitching before about how she was in obvious need of psychiatric evaluation.  
  
".Want it to stop." she cried. I gently picked her back up and put her on the table.  
  
"Get her a sedative," I whispered. I knew she wouldn't approve. But we couldn't have this. Jimmy just nodded and quietly moved to do what I'd asked.  
  
"He said. and I didn't mean for you to get hurt." I rocked her just a bit in my arms, letting her sob. "And Tim." She shuddered once, and passed out.  
  
"Well," Jimmy muttered peevishly. "Her shoulder's really broken this time. Too bad she's not awake and suffering."  
  
Gently, I released her back onto the table, and he went back to work, needle and bottle in hand. I turned back to the two men standing in the door way. "I don't know what to do for her," I said softly. "I don't know how to help her."  
  
Jim Gordon shook his head. I could tell he felt defeated, like there was nothing he could do either. He threw himself into a chair. "I was hoping for good news when her father came." He was still dealing with 'house being blown up' stuff.  
  
Alfred's lips pressed together. "These things can be worked on when her health is stable. I hear the front bell." That being said, he turned around and went up stairs.  
  
Jimmy and I blinked at each other. "Fix her up," I begged, leaning against the wall.  
  
"Fine," he ground out, trying to position her arm a little better. "Nothing's ever easy. Why does she have to. take everything in. Mull over it inside the darkness that is her soul, then drown in it?"  
  
"I don't know," I said quietly. It wasn't a kind assessment, but it was probably an accurate one. "And what the hell's with Alfred?" I asked, trying to deflect the attention away from her. "Any other time, he'd be clamoring all over her and us, trying to put us back together, and scolding the hell out of us."  
  
"No idea." He began setting her arm again for the thirty thousandth time this week. "It's like he's pushing an independence thing or something. I don't know. If she moves again and hurts this arm again, I'm going to do something she isn't going to like."  
  
I watched him work for a while, trying again to rest a little. I didn't know what else to do but to gather my strength for whatever might come next. One never knew with her. But one thing was for certain-it would be up hill, painful and emotionally draining.  
  
Just as I was zapping off again into a warm fuzzy drug place, I felt someone standing at the end of the med bay. My eyes opened, and Alfred was there, looking even more stoic than usual. "Mr. Luthor is here to see Miss Martha." His voice was cold and cut, like shards of glass.  
  
I hopped off the chair, my ring crackling. My uniform slithered around me with less speed than usual, and I bit back the pain as my ribs moved around. I would do this for her. Then maybe she could have some peace, and begin to heal.  
  
Mara sat up, hearing this. "We'll. I'll." She didn't have it together enough to do this. It would be me.  
  
Unfortunately, he knew our mind set. "It will do no good," Alfred warned. "He will only see her. The situation is. serious. He's come to speak with her about terms of surrender." We couldn't have possibly won. Alfred saw my shock. "He would like to discuss the handing over of Wayne holdings to LutherCorp."  
  
Shaking, Mara's good hand reached out and pulled a robe to her. I could see her wide-eyed fear. "Jordy, help me up there," she said with a broken voice. We were all in serious trouble.  
  
Jimmy and I got her presentable enough in night clothes. Not that it would probably matter how she looked.  
  
"I could shoot him," Mr. Gordon ground out.  
  
"I have to do this," Mara said flatly. She'd regained some composure, unfortunately, she'd retreated into herself to get it. "I have to know where we stand." I wrapped my arm around her, using the ring to support BOTH of us. "Jimmy. contact Nightwing and Oracle. S-security breach." I started walking her to the steps. She finally turned and looked to Alfred. "I can meet him. in the oratory." Yeah, the library was toast after this morning.  
  
"Very good," he said stonily, then walked on ahead of us.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Cassandra~~  
  
Early in the morning, Sammy woke up from a nightmare. I hated those. I had enough from my own childhood-or what passed for a childhood. She didn't need any of her own. Still.  
  
She was latched on to my neck, and all I could do is hold her tight. I wouldn't intentionally let anything hurt her. She had to know that.  
  
I rocked her again. Her long, chubby hands rubbed at her eyes and she moaned softly again. Her brown eyes were red and watery still, even though her crying had slowed. She had to know she was safe.  
  
And. if I waited for Tim.  
  
"Sammy, I have something to show you." I'd never been really good with words. Actions had always seemed better. "It'll make you feel better." I hoped it would, at least. It could always end up doing the thing Tim was afraid of it doing-scaring her and making her worry worse.  
  
Still-as the situation stood now? I didn't know that things could get much worse. She could at least trade nightmares of something unreal for something real.  
  
I scraped her arms off of me and picked her up. Soon she'd be too big to do this with. Leaving the room I usually slept in, I walked across the main chamber and to the storage room on the other side.  
  
"I want daddy," she moaned as I unlocked the door.  
  
"Daddy will be back soon," I promised. "I want to show you why he's busy." I put her down, but she still clutched on to me. Her hands twisted the fabric of the black knit sweater that Tim had given me years ago. My hand twisted the door knob and I pulled it opened. The motion sensing lights flickered on and hummed to life. My suit was the thing closest to the door. "Daddy's out," I told her. "Making everything safe."  
  
She took one step back. Then shook her head no. "He's just daddy," she said.  
  
"He was for a long time," I said, stroking her head. Absently, I began pulling the pony tail holder from her tangled hair. "But he's back now. And that's why no one's going to hurt you again. I wont let them, and he wont let them."  
  
I sensed someone behind me. Keeping Sammy close, I turned around. Tim was standing there with wide, hateful eyes. "How dare you," he whispered.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Mara~~  
  
I sat at the glass table on the other side of a sea of potted trees. I couldn't even name half of them. My arm was bound tightly, and held to me in a sling. Jordy had covered over my shoulders with a shawl that I didn't even know I owned. I didn't necessarily look presentable, but I wasn't giving him anything.  
  
He stood behind the iron chair I sat in, and I could tell he was only slightly better off than I was. He had a bandage across his right cheek, and practically every part of him was taped together.  
  
Alfred had gone to show in Luthor. "We can't do anything," I reminded Jordy unhappily. If anything happened to him right now, they'd know it was us. I still didn't care about me. But he still had a reputation-a career. My family still had lives. And there was still the problem that we didn't know what he'd do. We didn't know who else knew.  
  
"Mr. Lex Luthor," Alfred announced, and that bastard walked in, his hand bandaged and limping just a bit. I was surprised Luthor would enter the room alone-but he must have known he had us cornered.  
  
Alfred closed the conservatory's glass door and remained in front of it.  
  
"Lets talk terms," he said jovially. "I know about your side line business, and so will everyone else if you don't comply."  
  
I wouldn't bother saying that he couldn't prove anything-Luthor was smarter than that.  
  
He tossed a portfolio onto the table. "These are assets you can sell to me. There are also a list of other holdings that the stock will be transferred on by Monday afternoon. I think you'll find my way to be the least. painful," he said, staring at my shoulder.  
  
"How quick you are to tear down everything my grandfather spent his life building."  
  
His eyes narrowed. I was looking at the face of the devil. "YOU did that yourself, when you tried to take me on."  
  
I swallowed, trying to keep myself in the chair. Jordy's hand held me in the chair.  
  
"And if I don't give you our holdings?"  
  
"It's as I said. And make no mistake-I have voice recognition, and I have your blood and DNA all over the tiles of my floor. If either of you make a move against me in this room, my security will make sure you're eliminated. Just to take that temptation off of your hands."  
  
I sat back further in my chair. "Bastard," I whispered.  
  
"You take this too personally," he said. "It's just business."  
  
Jordy stepped beside me. "Murder is just business?" he asked harshly.  
  
"Sometimes."  
  
He grabbed my hand. "Even our child?"  
  
Luthor tossed a card on the table. Without bothering with a formal departure, he turned on his heals. "Freaks and humans have no business mating. I've done society a favor." Alfred exited the room right then, not bothering to show Luthor out. "You have one hour. I'll be in DC by then. I can be reached at the number on the card."  
  
He left the conservatory and the door clicked closed behind him. It echoed, then died away.  
  
I pulled Jordy's hand to my lips and held it there. I had no tears to cry.  
  
Continued in part five 


	5. Chapter 5

I promised part 5 before New Years. If it means anything, I did finish it before New Years, but an emergency at work precluded me posting it. SOOOOOO. Here I be, here it be, and thanks all, for a great run with Mara!  
  
She isn't dead, she's just going on hiatus. She might pop up in Jordy stories hence forth, so watch out for Jordy #1 coming your way over at Haven_Corridor (Formerly Nightflight) and my list.  
  
Sorry that's so long!! I feel like I'm writing teasers for next week's comics. It's been real, kids!  
  
See disclaimers in part one; thanks and other info in End Notes.  
  
Final Retaliation 5/5  
  
~~Dick~~  
  
I drove back to Gotham alone. Barbara was finishing the rest of the business one has to endure when one has one's house partially blown up. I'd had to spend more time than I'd liked getting Kristin out of trouble for not containing the fire. The Titans alone had gone through four different insurance agencies in the last fourteen years because of the kind of property damage we caused, and now they wanted to hold her liable for not being able to contain the explosion?  
  
Briefly, I wondered if Luthor had anything to do with the hard time we were receiving.  
  
My family needed me, and we were spread all over the damned map. Donna had told me that Mara had been retrieved and who'd done the retrieving. Jimmy had informed me of her current state of being. Donna gave me a heads-up on the Justice League going postal on my ass when she told me her sister was scraping Jordan off the asphalt in Buffalo.  
  
Kyle once told me he hoped Mara would toughen the boy up. It must have worked-the kid was still alive. I'd heard what he'd been up against. It was official. We were being pushed out.  
  
My cell phone buzzed against my leg, and I pulled it out of my jean pocket. "WHAT?" I asked, sounding an awful lot like Bruce. I didn't necessarily have the patience for polite conversation, nor did I have the time for patience.  
  
"Dad. we need you here," Jimmy said, a slight tremor in his voice. I wondered what the hell else could go wrong.  
  
"I'm on my way." I looked at the clock on the dash, and the first exit on the highway. "Give me. half an hour?" I had been well on my way already. "What's going on?"  
  
"Luthor was here," he said. I could practically hear the shiver in his voice. "He knows. He wants the company. Or he tells."  
  
I swore and shook my head. I'd rather have my kids safe than anything else. Luthor knowing, and Luthor telling others was NOT keeping my family safe. We'd have every nutjob we'd ever faced on our tails. I didn't even have to think to know which path Mara would choose, and I knew how badly it would kill her. The company was all she had left of Him.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
Luthor had left and now the room was cold and silent. Morning light streamed in painfully and bright. I didn't know what else to do but hold her to me. Her chest heaved suddenly in silent, violent gasps.  
  
"We'll fix it," I whispered. "We'll find a way." But there was nothing we could do. I knew that.  
  
The door opened again, and this time her grandfather was standing there. "What are you going to do?" he asked. I was sure everyone could guess what had transpired in this room. I didn't need to fill them in with the gory details. I didn't need to tell them what that man had said about Bruce, or about our child.  
  
"I.I think we need to talk to her parents," I said, trying to take charge.  
  
Suddenly, I felt her tear away from me. "Maybe. Oracle can. Find the recordings. the. no. He won't keep it online. We can." she shuddered again. "I can't-we didn't plan." I didn't know how to tell her you couldn't have a protocol for everything. That's how we'd ended up here. Life had happened, and all her planning had gone out the window.  
  
"Let's just talk to your parents. They'll think of something," I said sadly. Was there anything to think of at this point?  
  
"Come on," her grandfather said gruffly. "It's too warm in here." He held out a hand to her, and slowly, with my help, she rose. We walked towards the door and tried to get her to some place with a chair that wasn't entirely made out of metal. And if I could find something nice and squishy to sit on too. well, I wouldn't resist it at this point.  
  
As we crossed the threshold into the hall, the shawl fell off her shoulder just a little, and I could see the blood coming through the bandages and the robe. "You're bleeding again," I told her. "Jimmy'll tape you back up." At this point she was just a mass of stitches covered over in tape and bandages. The stiffness of the tape was what was keeping her upright.  
  
She shook her head.  
  
"Let your brother stop the bleeding," her grandfather told her sternly.  
  
"He's oozing," she growled, thumbing at my cheek.  
  
My shoulders sagged sadly. That wasn't how I wanted her to get through this. "Look, Mara, just." I sighed. "Never mind." I didn't have the energy to fight with her. And. I knew she was only being this way because she was worried.  
  
We came into the living room and she sat on the sofa. Her grandfather pushed a pillow under her arm, even though she didn't want it there, I could tell.  
  
I put myself down next to her gently. We were both a world of hurt right now and didn't need jostling around. "Where's Alfred?" I asked Mr. Gordon quietly.  
  
He shrugged. I had to confess. I felt somewhat abandoned.  
  
Jimmy came into room on our heals, his face somewhat anxious for information. Fortunately, he didn't dare ask what we were going to do. "Dad's coming here. Mom's trying some stuff on her end." He trailed off when he realized Mara wasn't paying any attention to him. She was staring out the window, a few tears falling out of her eyes.  
  
"It's. it's not that I. I need the company so much. It's what he'll do to it," she whispered. I had a feeling she was coming to a decision. "And what'll happen to the employees. And. and it's everything He worked for. It's going to be. demolished." Her eyes clenched closed. "Because of me."  
  
She was full of despair. I could hear it in the suffering of her words, and yet-I knew she was going to stay and see it through. I could hear that in her earlier efforts to come up with some sort of solution. The situation had grown from her own personal agony. There were so many people at stake suddenly-her family, the people with the company. Self-destruction had to take a temporary back seat. I prayed she'd see that some of us needed her here permanently-not just long enough to see this situation through.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
~~Cassandra~~  
  
Tim threw down his duffle bag. "I can't believe-I thought you understood."  
  
Sammy let go of me and ran to her father. "Daddy, Cassie said--"  
  
He knelt and hugged her. "I know what Cassie said," he said, very angry with me.  
  
I put my hands on my hips. I knew what was best for him even if he didn't. Like all that drinking stuff. I knew he didn't need that. I knew he needed to work out. "Tim, if I wait for you, she'll never know."  
  
He scowled up at me. "She didn't have to know." His eyes were so. blue when he was unhappy.  
  
"And what if something happens to you?"  
  
He picked her up and stormed off.  
  
I chased after him. "Do you think you're DONE?" I asked him. "That you're going to put the suit away and FORGET about it?"  
  
"NO!" He hollered back.  
  
"Quit yelling in front of the kid. Put her down."  
  
He stopped in the middle of my training circle and spun around, clutching Sammy to him more firmly. "Cassandra, I thought you understood," he said coldly. "I thought you knew why I didn't want to tell her."  
  
"It's true, daddy?" she asked. Her voice was muffled against his shoulder.  
  
Tim put her down and looked at her firmly. "Go to Cassy's room."  
  
"Daddy?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.  
  
He looked down at her with calm resolve, trying to tell her that he wasn't mad. "Sammy. I have to talk to Cassandra."  
  
Without receiving a real answer to Sammy's question if it was all true, she left. The door closed behind her with a thud, and I could hear her climbing up onto the bed. There was a tension-filled silence as Tim and I stared at each other.  
  
I stepped toward him. "I'm not sorry," I said quietly.  
  
"You never are, Cassandra."  
  
* * *  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
Her terrible decision made, Mara had dragged herself to her feet, and she was staring out the window. I hated when she closed herself off-though there did seem to be some quiet resolve about her. She did this when her grandfather had died, and look where it had gotten us. She'd nearly lost herself to grief and rage. WE had nearly lost her to her grief and rage. After this battle was over. I prayed she stayed with us.  
  
I had a good mind to call Mr. Grayson again, just to hear a friendly voice. Or Oracle, or Crystal, or anyone.  
  
Mr. Gordon was watching her, as if waiting for her to slip up. He'd gone pale as the rest of us. And as quiet as the rest of us too.  
  
"She isn't really going to give it up?" Jimmy whispered to me. "I mean. dad'll fix it, right? Dad fixes stuff." I shook my head and sighed. I wasn't sure what could be done at this point.  
  
Finally, I slid to the end of the couch and to the phone. I saw that one of the lines up stairs was in use, and watched it drop dead as the light on the display went out. Was that why Alfred wasn't here with us? What could he possibly be doing?  
  
I wasn't good at the secret identity thing. I had no life insurance because of it. I'd never really had one. It's hard when your parents don't, nor do other big-timers like the Flash, or Wonder Woman. Still. to the Bat-people and Superman, the secret identity was almost sacred. It was the prospect of a normal life, and protection against enemies for one's self and one's family. The secret identity was so much to them. Was there really ANYTHING they could do at this point?  
  
I dialed and had Oracle patch me through to my father. My communicator was in pieces. I couldn't even begin to find hers, or ask for someone else's.  
  
Before she put me through, she promised me that she was trying to find something to help us, ANYTHING. I knew she would try her best. Somehow, though, I had a feeling it would be futile. But. I knew she needed to keep herself busy.  
  
"Dad, PLEASE have some good news for me," I whispered into the phone. I didn't need the Justice League pounding on our door as well.  
  
He sounded tired and exasperated when he spoke. "I bought you twenty-four hours, kid. That's how long the Justice League is going to give you before they storm the Bastille."  
  
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks. You have no idea what happened."  
  
"Oracle told me. You think we don't talk or something. I told the JLA you're dealing with THAT crisis right now, and they could come demolish you guys later. I'm on my way back there. Just hang tight, kiddo."  
  
I hung up. The conversation hadn't necessarily made me feel any better, but it was ONE worry out of my mind temporarily.  
  
Sounds out front snapped me out of my daze. Slowly, Mara turned from the window to see what was going on, and her grandfather rose from his chair. Jimmy looked at me, and I shrugged. We heard the sound of the front door being flung opened. Mr. Grayson's foot steps could be heard pounding against the tiled floors and he came into the door way, wide-eyed and breathing hard. Our lives were already in shambles.what the hell else could possibly go wrong?  
  
  
  
~~Cassandra~~  
  
"Well, WERE you going to tell her?" I asked, tearing off my sweater as we circled each other. He'd shed his bag a minute ago when he'd started yelling at me.  
  
"NO!" Tim yelled. "NO! She wasn't going to know!"  
  
"And what if something happens to you?" I asked, taking a step towards him. My problem was, I'd made him too fast.  
  
"It WONT!" He took one more step towards me. "She's a little kid! She doesn't need to know what I. we do. She doesn't need to live with that fear!"  
  
"No. She cries because they might come back."  
  
"I will make her feel safe!" he yelled, coming within an inch of my face. "I raised her! I will take care of her, and that'll be the end of it. She doesn't need to know that what we do got her mother killed. She doesn't need to know-to worry-to have no childhood like we did. Damn it all to hell, Cassandra! You just. DO things. With like NO concept of what anyone else around you thinks or wants. I can't believe you and Bart broke up! You're MADE for each other. You're both. out to screw me over!"  
  
I couldn't stand his hot breath on my face any more. I attacked, pushing him to the ground. He rolled just as I was about to come down on top of him. I saw it just before it happened, and I broke my fall, using the matt to push myself up again. In desperation to get him to listen to me, I grabbed his shirt and pulled on it, dragging him to the ground. It stretched and tore, but he landed beside me.  
  
"You listen. I am not trying to hurt you. I'm doing what's best."  
  
He grabbed my shoulder and threw me over him and tried to get away, but just as I was flying, I grabbed his hand and pulled him back onto the ground with me. "What's BEST? Are you my MOTHER?"  
  
"I LOVE YOU!" He was such an idiot. The look of shock on his face was priceless and ALMOST worth it.  
  
It changed though. It twisted from shock to pain, and he turned away from me, staring straight into the floor. His fist pounded once against the mat. "I. love. Stephanie."  
  
* * *  
  
~~Mara~~  
  
I could see it all slipping out of my fingers. How far and how quickly everything had escaped my grasp. Did I ever think I was ready to take on all that he had? The responsibility of a city, of a company, of my own life, even?  
  
Three and a half months ago I'd been a college student, the protégé of the Bat. I'd been a.a side kick. A side kick trying to get my partner back. The man who was my hero, my father-my god. And I'd failed him even in that-even as I was failing him now, as I sat here staring at the phone on the table, attempting to will myself to make that call to Lucius Fox. To tell him I was a failure and a pale imitation for the shining light that had been my grandfather. To tell him that I'd failed the company, I'd failed my family.  
  
He'd said to me "you'll know what to do," and I thought I had known. I thought I could BE him-to the family, to the company, to the city-to myself. I was not ready to lead. Look where I had gotten us-into a pit of pain and destruction.  
  
If only Tim had come up sooner. No. I couldn't blame this on him, or on chance, it had been entirely my own doing. My own grief, my own misjudgment.  
  
If only I could make myself move. Make myself pick up the phone and admit defeat.  
  
I heard the car out front, and the dying of the engine . Feet upon the tile. It would be more bad news, I suspected. Though I couldn't imagine what else could go wrong. I couldn't imagine how I could have possibly failed more completely, unless someone had died because of me. Who, besides my own child, was going to pay for my own miserable failure?  
  
My father appeared in the door way, a strange, haunted look in his eye. I never knew him to breath so shallowly after physical exertion. Certainly that did not bode well.  
  
My grandfather had taught me to alleviate suffering and counter injustice and in this I had truly failed. Who else would be made to suffer for me?  
  
  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
"Turn on the TV!" Mr. Grayson shouted at us.  
  
My stomach knotted as Jimmy began fumbling within the leather sofa for the remote control. I sighed in disgust and a finger shot out of my ring and turned the TV on with the power button on the set.  
  
"What is it?" I asked as the set turned on and my ring ceased glowing with power.  
  
"Luthor's dead," Mr. Grayson said with concern tainted relief.  
  
Mara leaned against the window heavily, until her grandfather grabbed her and pulled her into a chair. Her eyes suddenly glazed over, and I hoped to God she wasn't zoning out on me again, like before the funeral.  
  
Jimmy found the remote in time to turn up the volume.  
  
"I can't believe." I muttered. There on the screen. Soap operas interrupted by a news report-former President Luthor assassinated outside the White House. There'd been a sniper attack. In the subsequent confusion, Luthor's titanium brief case had vanished.  
  
A female reporter quipped over the images of the chaos outside the White House. "Again. nothing has been confirmed at this time, though rumors are already beginning to surface about the involvement of rogue Brittish intelligence being involved. US officials say it is too early to speculate."  
  
"I don't effing believe it," said Jimmy. He was the first one of us to regain any composure. "I've been praying he'd drop over dead, but. geeze. I'm gonna start going to church."  
  
Behind him, a strange sound erupted. It was like the pleas of a kitten for attention and milk. When I looked back, Mara was sobbing and laughing at the same time.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Cassandra~~  
  
There was a pulsing pain in the pit of my stomach. I knew this was coming.  
  
"Tim. just STOP!" I said loudly, pulling him back on to the mat.  
  
"I told you!" he said, rolling away from me. He got to his feet, unfortunately, he was now against a wall. My training room was round. but still. That only left him two escape routs, and I was right-out pissed.  
  
"I love you!" I repeated. "Everything I do is for you!"  
  
He looked both ways, thinking about it. "I love. I can't. Look. I'm just."  
  
"STUPID," I told him. I'd closed in on him a second later. "You can love her. But. she's gone. She's cold. Dead. In the ground."  
  
He actually looked down. Hadn't he thought of it? All the ways he'd tormented himself, and he still hadn't really. realized she was dead. Or something. I'd seen too much death. When someone was dead, they were gone. The end.  
  
"You don't love me at all?" I asked.  
  
Slowly, his eyes rose to meet mine. They were so. blue. "I."  
  
I put my hands on my hips. "Tim. I've known you too long."  
  
"I. I." He stuttered. He was Batman now. But Tim was still stupid. Bruce was stupid too. At least Tim is cute when he's stupid.  
  
I had to put him out of his misery. My lips pressed to his. He tasted salty, the way I always imagined he'd taste. It was a soft, almost conciliatory kiss. "Do you not love me?"  
  
"Shit," Tim muttered, pressing his head against the cement wall. "I. I do."  
  
I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck, finally content for the first time in a very, very long time.  
  
His hands grabbed hold of my torso, and his lips smashed unceremoniously against mine.  
  
There were a few things finally right in the world-despite everything else going on around us. We had a Batman, and I had Tim.  
  
* * *  
  
~~Dick~~  
  
Mara was laughing and crying at the same time. Jim got her into a chair, but she just sort of crumpled in it. I didn't know if it was from relief, exhaustion, pain, or what. I was worried about her. I spent a lot of time worrying about my kids, and sometimes-it wasn't like it did any good.  
  
Jordy knelt beside her-I could tell he was feeling the effects of the last twenty-four hours. In addition to the bloody mass on his forehead that SHE had given him, he had a host of other injuries. Me losing the backside of my house seemed to be the least of all of our problems right now.  
  
"Hey," he said gently. "It's over."  
  
She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her robe. "We. we don't know that. The case. Don't know what was in it."  
  
He brushed the hair away from her face. "I think it's over," he told her confidently. "And you didn't even have to make that call," he said, looking at the phone. She would be just like him-wait until the last minute to talk to Lucius Fox.  
  
"We have to be sure," she muttered, looking to me pleadingly.  
  
I couldn't help it. I gave her a sympathetic smile. As much as I'd wanted to strangle her lately-she was my kid. She'd also been through more than I could expect Bruce to handle and still come out unscathed. "I'll talk to Donna and your mother. See what we can collectively find out."  
  
She nodded. That seemed to bring her some peace.  
  
Jordan looked up at me, his eyes also trying to ask me some question. Finally, his eyes went to the phone on the table next to the sofa. "I'd talk to Alfred first," he tried to say casually. Unfortunately, with the look in his eyes, I knew there was a lot more meaning in the request.  
  
"I can do that," I said with equal indifference. "I haven't seen him around." I looked to Jim briefly, silently asking him to stay with her. I had to admit Jimmy was right. She wasn't the most stable thing in the world. I loved her-but she'd been through too much to trust her any more. At least right now.  
  
"Jimmy, call your mother. See what she and Donna know." The boy leapt off the couch with a mock-salute. I had a feeling this was getting too emotionally draining for him anyway. He wasn't used to seeing Mara so. fragile. None of us were, really. "I'll be back in a few," I promised, heading for the upstairs.  
  
I didn't understand why the sunlight was so bright today. It seemed to pour in and catch on anything at all in the air, creating a blinding haze. Maybe my eyes were misting. I didn't know. Turning down the correct hall, I knocked on Alfred's door. Jordy had said before that the line in his room had been in use right before I arrived.  
  
"It's unlocked," a voice said casually on the other side.  
  
The door creaked opened, and I stepped into the room. I hung back out of the rays of the sun, searching for some relief-but instead-I saw Alfred sitting there. In that chair.  
  
"N-not today," I begged desperately.  
  
"Today," he said quietly.  
  
I couldn't help it. I fell on my knees at his feet, as if all the begging in the world could help.  
  
~~Jordy~~  
  
We were told by Mr. Grayson to meet Alfred in his room. He seemed to be avoiding eye contact with us, and when I got Mara to her feet, he mumbled some strange apology about having to do something in the garage. That alone gave me an odd feeling, but I didn't know what to make of it.  
  
I, of course, had no idea what this was about. Ok, so maybe I did. But quite frankly, I didn't want to discuss it with him, and I was pretty sure Mara didn't either. I didn't care how Luthor had died.  
  
When we came into his room, the curtains were opened and the cold white light poured in from the cloudless sky. It did not warm the room, though.  
  
He was sitting in the chair next to the window, just out of the path of the light. I could see him staring into the rays of light. "I'm glad to see you," he told us. Which was strange to me. In all honesty, I wouldn't be happy to see us. Not for all the trouble we'd caused.  
  
"Uh-- we came as soon as we heard you wanted to see." I answered, suddenly having a bad feeling about this meeting.  
  
"Now," Alfred began, reaching into his pocket for something. He pulled out a ring that shined in the light.  
  
"What-don't--" Mara seemed to be catching on to the seriousness of this situation. Her undamaged arm wrapped around me, and held on to me to keep her upright.  
  
"Master Jordan. You will take this." His voice seemed very-tired.  
  
Without protest, I did as he asked. I looked at it. It was a solid gold band. On the inside were engraved initials, and a date. I knew whose ring this had been.  
  
"If you will be so kind," he instructed, "you will now give it to Miss Martha."  
  
My eyebrows shot upward, and she actually pulled back from me.  
  
"Miss Martha-don't be unruly. It is unbecoming." She froze where she was, mid-movement, and his eyes rose, and then met hers. "I've taken care of all of you for a very long time. Today. I've done my last thing for you. Now it is time for you to take care of each other."  
  
Slowly, her eyes came to rest on the shining gold band clutched between my fingertips. She finally lifted her left hand to me, and I put the ring upon her finger. There was a long pause as we both grasped the magnitude of what was transpiring. When we both finally looked from her hand to him, Alfred was gone.  
  
* * *  
  
Christmas Eve, Mid Morning  
  
I sat with my legs propped up on the chair across from me. My ring shot little sparks through a hoop and I entertained myself for a few moments. I was tired and worn out from another 'save the universe' deal, and I had to get up early this morning for holiday preparations.  
  
The access hatch on the bottom of the monitor womb buzzed for a moment. The legs sticking out from beneath it grew stiff. A second later, the buzzing stopped, and the body protruding from the hatch relaxed.  
  
"That hurt!" a muffled voice declared from the inside of the hatch.  
  
"Shut the electricity off, first, then you won't shock yourself!" I hollered. When I realized he wasn't really listening to me, I went back to watching the monitors. This wasn't how I'd intended to spend the day. I didn't think Jimmy had planned to spend Christmas Eve on the moon either.  
  
"Playing with dead wires is for sissies," he said as he ducked his head out of the panel and sat up. "That was only sixty volts anyways."  
  
I shook my head, refusing to look at him. "You're retarded, you know that?"  
  
He wiped his hands and slowly crawled to his feet, taking a look at the monitor. "Well, the extra power supply is installed. No more weird black- outs like yesterday."  
  
We'd had another one of those universal crisis things, and the monitors at the Watch Tower went dead for about seven minutes. His dad had been on duty and he'd shit the proverbial brick you hear tell about. Hence Jimmy was up here now. I was just keeping him company and making sure he didn't do something like shock his heart into stopping by doing something stupid like playing with live wires. His wife wouldn't like that very much. I was also waiting for my father. I heard a nasty rumor he'd be making an appearance at the Grayson's for dinner, and I didn't want anything to foul it up.  
  
Tomorrow we could spend over his place, celebrating quietly. Today was a day for knock-down drag outs and general family mayhem. I'd already placed a bet with Roy that Tim and Cassandra would have the first fight. Cassandra was still fuming over something his father had said at the wedding reception-some nasty insult about giving their first marriage to each other three years instead of the two he gave Tim and Stephanie.  
  
Of course, Tim wasn't around to hear it, all he knew was that Cassandra had a look of murder in her eye, and now she was holding a grudge that he hadn't let her deck her new father-in-law.  
  
I'd have probably popped him one, too.  
  
"Twenty-five bucks says Cassandra throws the first punch," Jimmy muttered as he began packing his tools up.  
  
"I already placed that bet with Roy," I told him absently. "And I'm not betting on anything with you any more. Not since I found out you cheat."  
  
"I cheat sometimes," he told me. "It aint my fault I was blessed with a little blonde number who happens to get premonitions from time to time."  
  
"That's like letting Superman and his x-ray vision pull straws for monitor duty."  
  
He sat down at the monitor table and began running a few tests to make sure the power supply would hold. "Uncle Clark wouldn't cheat," Jimmy said solemnly.  
  
"There's a reason he hasn't monitored on Christmas in God knows how many years," I said knowingly. I looked at the power ring for a moment, then aimed it at the counter. Some miniature-dancing pandas appeared on the counter to torment Jimmy.  
  
"Laws of probability," he replied, trying to swat at the bears. "His time will come."  
  
"You just keep thinking that, Jimbo."  
  
Satisfied that his little invention worked, he pulled a pink printed receipt out of his pocket. It gave the total for services rendered and also noted that the money would be automatically withdrawn from JLA funds on the next working day. Never let it be said that Daedelus worked for free, or that there was altruism involved.  
  
He'd successfully driven Oracle insane for about a month; appearing online and telling her he wanted a piece of the action. He'd build it, they'd pay. She'd gone crazy trying to track him down. Finally his cover was blown at the dinner table one night when his grandfather said "didn't you KNOW that's your son?" Jimmy'd gotten smacked upside the head with a wooden spoon for it, but his business had really taken off once the Justice League and other groups were sure he wasn't evil.  
  
Of course, I wasn't entirely convinced he wasn't evil, but it helped that we had baby pictures of him-naked ones-should he ever step out of line.  
  
"So, uh. I see a ring on your finger," he said very casually.  
  
I shrugged, making a bear in a bubble to float in front of his face.  
  
"Other ring, Minty. Why didn't you guys say you were doing the deed?"  
  
I shrugged again. "I can neither confirm nor deny."  
  
"Shah right." He grabbed hold of the bubble and it popped. The bear danced in his hand for a moment, then vanished.  
  
"Didn't want to make a big deal after everything. Tim's wedding wasn't encouraging, either." Mostly, MARA hadn't wanted to draw attention to it. She'd come so far lately-well, I'd let her have that battle.  
  
I began flipping buttons on the console, looking for my dad. So much for him meeting me up here. "Dad'll know to come over your house, right?" Sometimes I wondered about these things, you know?  
  
"Yeah, he should. Crys called him last night. Mom double-checked this morning." He picked up his box of tools and moved toward the teleporter. "Lets blow this Popsicle stand. I got two cute little kids waiting at home with bated breath for their dad."  
  
I shrugged and followed. "Yeah, right. They're gonna be doing the same thing they were doing when we left-sleeping." A little elf jumped out of the ring and skipped over to the control panel for the teleporter. He took a candy cane out of his pocket, punched in the codes, and we were on our way.  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
When I came into the house, Mara was sitting in the living room in the easy chair. Sammy was asleep in her arms. Of course, the girl was growing long and thin, so she was all over Mara, but Mara's arms were wrapped around her. Mara's head rested upon hers.  
  
I watched her stare down at the figures on the carpet longingly. Lying on a blanket, Kristen was asleep, her arms curled around her two sons.  
  
"Some day," I promised her. I put my hand on her shoulder and noticed she wasn't wearing her usual-silk and more silk. It was a pair of my jeans and an old shirt she used to wear in high school. I remembered the instant change her wardrobe had undertaken when her grandfather died, and it was nice to see her in something more relaxed.  
  
She placed her hand over mind. "We're going to start cooking, soon."  
  
I groaned. Traditionally, as soon as the cooking started, the fighting started. Still. everyone seemed very. sedate this year. "Parents are up stairs?" I asked.  
  
Her lips turned upward in one of those quirky smiles that I loved. "Time alone type thing."  
  
That was her term for it. Jimmy had one word for it: Growupsex. Personally. I didn't want to get involved. I smiled and sighed, preparing to find a place on the couch and relax. Jimmy would be back soon, and we could have a quiet Christmas for the first time in. ever.  
  
Everything started and ended with Christmas, Mara told me once. I supposed we'd see about that. This year we'd be seeing new faces at the table, and remembering the passing of others. That would certainly make for a somber event.  
  
The door flung opened, and I wondered what Jimmy was in a huff about. He'd been in a good mood when I'd talked to him last.  
  
"It's wrong on SO MANY levels!" Tim cried out. I'd guessed wrong on who'd arrived, obviously.  
  
"Nothing wrong at ALL!" it was one of THOSE arguments. Cassandra wasn't talking in complete sentences.  
  
I could hear the rustle of bags, and I got up to tell them to be quiet, babies, little girls and new moms were sleeping.  
  
"Well, first of all, you told BART before you told me. And SECOND of all, you could have TOLD me you were trying. A little WARNING would be nice."  
  
Cassandra grabbed the bag from him and began taking out celery and breadcrumbs. This year the fighting had started before the cooking. That was certainly a new accomplishment.  
  
"There're people sleeping in the living room," I informed them. "Don't make me go Lantern on your asses," I said without humor. The ring flashed once, and I glared at both of them  
  
They both looked at me, snorted, then turned back to arguing with each other. Yeah, I was really going to intimidate two Bats in the heat of battle.  
  
"What I'm saying--"  
  
She waved the celery at him. "It's over, it's done with. You know NOW."  
  
Tim ran a hand through his hair and gave a bitter laugh. "THANKS!"  
  
"Well, you're Batman. You should figure it out."  
  
"YEAH, the PREGNANCY TESTER in the GARBAGE CAN was my first tip off, CASSANDRA!"  
  
"Oooh boy," I muttered, leaving the room. The holidays hath begun.  
  
"You didn't even tell me you WANTED to get pregnant. You didn't tell me you were TRYING to. I come home one morning, and see the box sticking out of the waste paper basket-like hello? Great STEALTH MOVE, and Bart saying 'oh, yeah, didn't she TELL you?' SCUSE me if I'm just a LITTLE offended!"  
  
Sammy shot past me. "I'm gunna have a sister?" she asked excitedly. "Or a brother?" Guess she's awake NOW.  
  
I had entered the living room and was standing next to my wife's chair with wide eyes. I knew how sad she got over these things lately.  
  
Cassandra's voice echoed off the walls in the kitchen. "If I wait for you, I'll be old and decrepit. You're mad about the baby."  
  
"NO," Tim said with great emphasis. "I'm mad that you didn't tell me what was going on."  
  
Finally Mara laughed and shook her head. "We have SO many issues," she informed me.  
  
I let out a breath of relief. "You are all cute when you have issues," I assured her.  
  
"Us all? You'd better watch your mouth, sailor."  
  
I knelt beside her chair and grinned. "You all." Growing a little more serious, I grabbed her hand and kissed it, just below her wedding ring. "I promise you, SOME DAY that'll be us, ok?"  
  
She squeezed my hand back. It was a sad squeeze. "I know. Some day."  
  
Unfortunately, we'd been trying. and not the least bit of luck. I was about to ask Cassandra for advice. She seemed to have had quick success after the wedding.  
  
"Till then," I said as the twins started crying in unison, "We'll just have to keep trying really hard." I gave her a slow wink, and she rubbed my arm a little. I was proud of her. She was in the midst of all this 'family stuff' and 'baby stuff' and she was still holding it together.  
  
The front door opened and slammed again. "You all disgust me!" THAT was Jimmy. "You're gonna just let 'em cry like that!" He came into the living room and scooped up both babies just as Kristen was starting to wake. "What're THEY fighting about?"  
  
"Well, your way of telling me SUCKED." Tim was entirely different out of costume. He was just plain old Tim. I knew he had no trouble becoming the Bat once the costume was on. He had a different dichotomy than the old man had. Tim was both parts completely, instead of one life being entirely a façade.  
  
"SHUT UP." Still-worst came to worst-Cassandra would keep him honest.  
  
Jimmy grinned, gently bouncing his crying children. "He just found out that the rabbit died, huh?"  
  
I nodded. I wouldn't even ASK how he knew. Half the free world probably knew Cassandra was pregnant before Tim found out. I had a feeling the tester in the waste basket was her way of saying 'surprise!'. Well, a picture's worth a thousand words. and that's what Tim was cooking up in the kitchen-all the words Cassandra's little image in the trash didn't use up.  
  
"Well, lets get the two buckaroos fed before they break my ear drums." He began walking for the kitchen and the bottles in the fridge, when his wife grabbed hold of his pant leg.  
  
"Don't go in there," she told him. "You might not come out alive. Give 'em to me." Jimmy said she was getting good at feeding both at once. I just shuddered thinking about it, hoping she wasn't going to make us watch.  
  
Sure enough, in a burst of crazy uber-new-age-feminism, up went the shirt, and the kids stopped screaming. I tried not to look without making it look like I was trying not to look. Mara also adverted her gaze, but then her eyes wandered back longingly.  
  
In the hall, the elevator slid opened, and Mara's disheveled parents came out. Mr. Grayson's hair was sticking straight up in the air. There were certain advantages to spending Christmas day with my dad, who lived alone. "What the hell's going on down here?" he asked everyone.  
  
"Tim! She didn't tell you! Get over it!" Oracle knew too. Well, if it was any consolation to Tim, I didn't know.  
  
"Everyone in the damned." his grumbling quieted down so that I couldn't make out all of his words. I could guess, though. I sat down on the sofa nearest her chair, and put my feet up on the arm. We'd had our obligatory world-ending fiasco for the month, but next month was close enough at hand that we might get next month's dose of chaos early.  
  
Mara just sat in her chair, sad and quiet. That's how she'd been lately. Severely lacking in smart remarks. Jimmy left her alone simply because she instigated nothing with no one. Robin was her old self, but Mara wasn't even half the hard time she used to be. I had a feeling that Jimmy'd feel better about himself if she'd just say one insulting thing to him. I had a feeling she had a lot of things to work through, still, before she could do that, even if things had been better with her.  
  
After that day, things had quieted down with the Justice League. Someone felt intent on letting Wonder Woman and her posse in on the little secret that had ruined our lives, finally, while we were trying to pick up the pieces that day. So much had been lost, and so much had been given back, all in one moment.  
  
She and the others were still mad. She wanted to know why she hadn't been told-and she still did not approve of the way things had been handled. It had been me that ended up talking to her. I took the brunt of the verbal lashing and explained that things had spun out of control so quickly-it had all gotten away from us.  
  
We never discussed Luthor's end. It never came up in that conversation or any other. No suspects were ever named, and no one really went out looking. That had been one small bright spot in a sea of hurt and worry.  
  
Alfred's funeral had been hard. The last tie between Bruce and his partners was gone. Mr. Grayson spent a LOT of time in the garage. Mara grew quiet again, and strangely clingy. She even apologized for trying to kick me out and for knocking me unconscious. HE would have probably never done that.  
  
I think she realized that she didn't have to be as alone as he was when she did that. Dinah still hadn't returned from the 'traveling' she'd embarked on at Bruce's death. She was another one that needed to sort herself out. She knew she never really had Bruce, even if they were together-and I think Mara finally saw that. She realized she really had me, all she had to do was take me. I wasn't going anywhere. Even if I occasionally wanted to kill her. And I think she also realized she HAD to keep me. Not just because Alfred had commanded it, but also because that was what was right and best.  
  
In the kitchen, I could hear the argument continuing. Tim was mad in typical Tim fashion that no one had said anything to him, Cassandra was mad that he hadn't gotten a clue before, Sammy wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl, Mr. Grayson wanted to know who was cooking and Oracle wanted EVERYONE to shut up.  
  
Jimmy had his arm around Kristen, and she'd fallen back asleep, both boys still sucking away. Her powers were back to normal, but she hadn't made any announcement yet as to when she'd be back to work.  
  
The front door opened, and I could hear the wind blowing as people entered. The stragglers were here. "Well, I got two bottles this year. One to drink, one for them to break over each other's heads," Jim Gordon said sarcastically above the roar coming from the kitchen.  
  
My father started laughing. "Sounds like the war's already begun  
  
I leaned closed to Mara. "So. um. since everyone's here, and the fight's still on-going. lets slip upstairs and work on our 'secret project'."  
  
"Eww. In my parents house." She made a face.  
  
"You had no problem with it in high school."  
  
"It was dangerous and exciting then," she answered truthfully.  
  
I grinned. "Well, maybe dangerous and exiting will work some magic for us." I rose, then pulled her to her feet.  
  
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Jimmy asked. "You gotta stay here. I ain't cooking this year."  
  
"We'll be back," I told him. "One word twerp. And you know what it is." Grownupsex.  
  
He cringed. "Go. Get out of my face."  
  
Mara remained entirely impassive during the exchange. As soon as we were upstairs, though, she let a happy sigh. "I heard dad punched him in the face when he heard what happened at prom."  
  
It was the first bit of spark I'd seen in her in a while. I opened the door to her old room and pulled her inside, tossing her onto the bed. Locking the door, I jumped on the bed beside her. "Hey, I'm just proud of you for not getting caught up in the madness this year. Let 'em duke it out, then after they're tired from fighting, we'll go mop the floor with them."  
  
"Are you going 'strategist' on me?" She rubbed my arm as I pushed her bangs out of her face.  
  
I shrugged. "Maybe. So. Wanna try and gross out your brother?" I pulled back the collar of her shirt and kissed her neck.  
  
"In a few minutes. I figure if we start really going at it on the couch after dinner, we can get him to puke turkey." I had to admit, the spark of mischief in her eye was incredibly attractive.  
  
"You know, if you do that," I told her in all honesty, "you're opening yourself up to a world of hurt."  
  
She shrugged. "It's time to get some things back to normal. And everything else." Mara looked away from me with hesitation. "Well, some things aren't going back to normal, you know? This'll be the first Christmas without. them. HIM."  
  
I rubbed her back sympathetically. She still never really talked about it. "I know. It hurts when things change," I muttered. "When people aren't there any more."  
  
She looked down to her midsection. "It's a gap that really doesn't get filled, does it?"  
  
I shook my head no. "But. Well, new places in your heart open up. Right now we have two nephews that need spoiling. They're loud-mouths. Lanterns in the making. And think of how much it'd kill Tim and Cass if their little bun-in-the-oven grew up on the Great Green Way."  
  
Her laugh rung out, strong and supported. "Don't you DARE. That's all we need are a bunch of Jimmys running around with duplicate Lantern Rings. And he's a rabbit. He and Crystal will rebuild the Corps all by themselves."  
  
I pushed her back onto the bed. "And Tim and Cass would just kill me. We'll split it evenly between little Robins and Lanterns when we start spoiling them."  
  
"That's THREE," she informed me.  
  
Like I couldn't do math or something. "Ours'll be the fourth. We'll split it straight down the middle-promise." We'd get it right eventually. Till then-we'd drive everyone else nuts. It seemed like a healthy enough plan.  
  
Her lips pulled back in an evil grin. They were such pretty, full lips. They beckoned me to taste them.  
  
"Are you going to do this, or what?" she asked finally.  
  
Without further ado, my lips met hers.  
  
THE END  
  
Endnotes:  
  
I want to thank the folks who've put up with this while it was in production: Andrew, Brendan and Charlene (in alphabetical order). I'd also like to thank all of the folks who've been reading Mara's adventures since this summer. You're a bunch of troopers.  
  
For fear of being OT, she's gonna move off the Bludhaven list, if she crops up again. She'll be available at my mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/battybeyond)  
  
And probably over at Nightflight (now called Haven_ Corridor). I will attempt to continue archiving at fanfiction.net, but I can not guarantee that she'll be in the Batman section where she has been. I'm trying to be fair and offend the least number of people.  
  
It's been a pleasure writing Mara's grown up adventures, and answering the 'what if' question I had in my head when I started. The initial thought was 'wow, if Dick and Babs brought up kids in the Batclan, they'd be really messed up.' And y'all have let me see how that'd turn out. See y'all at Haven Corridor and my group. Thanks for your support and attention.  
  
Yer pal,  
  
Tammy 


End file.
